Unexpected: A Tale of Two Gays
by ChroniclesofNarniaGleeandDW
Summary: It started with a thank you. Tumblr!Klaine. A fic written by The Blonde Haired Goose and myself.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Glee and all other recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, and Fox. Used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended. Supernatural is mentioned and is property of Eric Kripke.

This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.

* * *

**Chapter One**

Blaine shut the door to his dorm room hard. He deposited his school bag on the floor next to his bed and sat at his desk. He opened his laptop and waited for it to load.

Once he was in, he pressed the refresh button, reloading the Tumblr tab he barley ever closed. He checked his notifications without much interest before opening a new tab and typing in . It was the Tumblr of his favorite Fanfiction writer, Kurt.

"_Kurt, 17, Ohio, Dean/Cas shipper and fashion freak. Addicted to good coffee. I write occasionally. Queries welcome._" That's what his short description said. Blaine knew it off by heart. He had read Kurt's bio a thousand times.

He clicked past his homepage and into his writing tag. Blaine barely managed to contain his squeal of joy as he saw that Kurt had updated his latest Destiel story.

Blaine grinned. He was going to experience several emotions reading Kurt's short story. A tear or two might drip onto his desk.

Blaine was a writer too. At least, he liked to think he was, even though his stories tended to get closer to ten notes, instead of a thousand, which Kurt's own Fanfictions managed. Once he'd finished reading, he reblogged the fic. He made sure to add a few tags that made him sound insane.

He scrolled his dashboard, reblogging a few gif sets from the newest Supernatural episode, until the door opened behind him.

"Blaine, are you kidding me? Do you ever log off that stupid site?" Blaine rolled his eyes. He didn't bother to turn around in his chair because this conversation happened every day. Blaine got back from classes an hour before his roommate Jeff, because Jeff always went to the library after classes ended to study.

Jeff always barged into their room, glanced at where Blaine sat at his desk and explained how Blaine happened to be losing his life to the internet. After the small argument, he'd barge out again. Whenever Blaine told him he had homework, Jeff claimed he was going on an 'exciting journey with real life friends'.

Blaine did have homework to do, even if he hadn't started it yet. He made sure he had an hour after classes where he could sit with his computer and scroll endlessly through the several posts. Blaine enjoyed time to himself. He wasn't a weird loner who never left the room.

He had several friends, and he spent time with them every day. Jeff was just teasing him due to the overall time he spent thinking of a TV show. But, it was Supernatural, so they couldn't blame him, right?

He rolled his eyes once more before standing up and retrieving his bag, Blaine sat and started pulling out his books. Luckily he didn't have too much homework, so it didn't take long until he was back online, ready for a weekend of fun.

A few minutes later Jeff showed up behind him to whisper in his ear. "It's Friday, do you want to come with us for dinner?"

Blaine finally tore his eyes away from the screen and stared at Jeff, who had his arms crossed across his chest. "Yeah, I'm coming, let me just get my stuff," Blaine said, closing his laptop and digging through his bag for his cellphone and wallet.

"So, where are we going?" Blaine asked as he was pulling on his jacket.

"The warblers are meeting us at that pizza place by the mall," Jeff said absently. "I don't know who's driving."

"I can drive us." Blaine said. Jeff nodded in response.

Twenty minutes later Blaine found himself squeezed into a booth in between Wes and Jeff with ten other people crammed in next to each other. It always amazed Blaine how, every Friday, no matter where they went, they always managed to fit around one table. Now, Blaine found himself wondering why he hadn't seated himself closer to the edge of the booth. He had a weak bladder and he needed to pee. Getting past seven seated people was as hard as it sounded.

"Guys," Blaine said, trying to get their attention without much success. After three unsuccessful coughs and poking Jeff in the side he opened his mouth once more. "**Guys**," he raised his voice. The conversations suddenly stopped and every head turned towards him. "I need to use the restroom. Scoot out of your seats and let me out," he demanded.

"He's just going into the bathroom to check his blog," Nick said with an eye roll. Blaine snorted as he exited the booth and made his way to the bathroom. When he returned, their food had arrived, and once again Blaine had to fight to get the guys to move their asses and let him sit in his original seat.

"Did you have fun tonight?" Jeff asked as soon as he got the door to their dorm room open.

"Yeah, of course I did," Blaine said, clutching his laptop and lying on his bed.

"Better than spending the evening on Tumblr, staring at that Ackles guy?"

Blaine pretended to consider it before shrugging. "Meh," he said.

"You are such a geek," Jeff said with a laugh. Blaine rolled his eyes, deciding to check his e-mail while he waited for Tumblr to load. It was mostly spam, an e-mail from his English teacher, and something from Tumblr.

_Destiel__-and-scarves asked a question._

"What are you staring at?" Jeff asked, seeing the way his mouth hung open as he stared at his screen. "Did Ackles do another shirtless photo-shoot again?"


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter was written by me.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Kurt Hummel groaned with annoyance as he sat next to his dad. "Supernatural, _again_?"

Burt chuckled gruffly and reached over to ruffle his son's hair. Kurt let a slight grin form onto his face and leaned into the touch. "You know you love it, son."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "I admit, the two brothers are _hot. _That angel guy? His facial features are just... Divine."

"It's not your thing," Burt said. "But it's something you can watch with your old man.."

Kurt smiled. "There _is _eye-candy," he admitted.

Burt grunted, settling next to his son to watch the newest episode.

Kurt sat on the other side of the sofa, his hands folded on his lap as he watched the two brothers hunt monsters with a put upon sigh.

After the show finished, Kurt smiled at his sleeping father and stood. With long, leisurely strikes he strolled to his bedroom and switched on his laptop after locking his door.

At once, a picture of Jared Padelecki emerged on the screen. Kurt blushed a vivid red and glanced behind him, ensuring nobody was present. Kurt took a deep breath and stared at the photograph for a few minutes longer. "So handsome..." he muttered.

He clicked on Google Chrome and Kurt soon gained access to the World Wide Web. Taking another hesitant breath, he typed the dreaded website - tumblr' ' - into the search bar. He sat on his bed and logged into his acclaimed account.

Kurt's cheeks burned as he took in the number of messages in his inbox. The number '63' rested on top of the mail icon, highlighted in red. Kurt clicked his teeth together. He hated looking in his dreaded inbox.

He started at the beginning, answering the messages. It took a long time as he worked his way through all of them, thanking them for the compliments on his most recent 'Destiel' fic. Dean and Castiel were a couple that Kurt adored. The jerk and the angel? Dean and Castiel were the reason that he'd even discovered Fanfiction and Tumblr in the first place.

Kurt paused as he found a message in capital letters. The words 'Destiel FAG QUEEN' stared back at him. He tried not to let it affect him. Kurt earned haters and lovers.

He'd deliberated, after his first ever anon hate message, to remove his profile picture. It was of him and Sam Evans, his only friend who knew his love for Supernatural, posing as Dean and Cas. Sam had died his hair for the occasion. He'd bleached it again now, despite Kurt telling him it looked amazing black.

Kurt rubbed his dry eyes before any tears could form, and continued reading the praise in his inbox. He felt better after taking in the several compliments his work received and the requests to draw art for favorites.

He looked at his blog, taking in the last time he had uploaded any Fanfiction. "February," he muttered in surprise. He hadn't realized how preoccupied he had been in the past few months. It didn't matter, though. He was uploading a new fic today.

Kurt opened the Microsoft Word document, glancing at his baby with a fierce pride. It had taken him ages to write. He had wanted the fic to be absolutely perfect. The hardest part was making sure he wrote the duo correctly. It was a Victorian Steampunk AU, which had taken more research than school work.

Castiel was the hero this time. Kurt had decided that he didn't want his reviewers to think he couldn't write helpless Dean when the occasion arose. Kurt took pride in that fact. Dean still put up a great fight. It was one of the reasons Kurt was so stupidly proud of this piece of Fanfiction.

He took another deep breath before uploading it onto Tumblr, ensuring that everything was perfect. It was hard to be perfect without a beta, but that was something Kurt prided himself for. Beta's were lovely and he had met several whilst being online, but he was an independent author.

_BowtiedJensenFreak reblogged this from you._

"That was fast." Kurt muttered, his forehead creased.

Kurt was curious to see if the other Tumblr user had read his fic instead of reblogging it purely because Kurt's user-name was famous in the Supernatural fandom. He clicked on the user-name. Kurt beamed as he logged onto the Tumblr users page, a colorful mess with Jensen Ackles plastered everywhere.

He searched for his Fanfiction. He found it on the second page, hidden between a picture of a flying lawnmower and Misha Collins with Jensen Ackles doing a promo shoot. "Cute," he murmured, grinning at the sweetness between the pair.

He glanced at the tags the stranger had written below his fic. "_The best fucking fic in this fucking fandom I can't believe how good this fic is. How does he get this talent? I want it! the Destiel is just... So spot on, I love it, I love it, I love it! Steampunk as well, I never thought I liked that genre but. DEAN'S THE ONE THAT NEEDS SAVING, CAS ALWAYS NEEDS SAVING IN KURT'S FICS, BUT DEAN'S THE ONE THAT NEEDS SAVING FOR A CHANGE AND ARRRGH THIS WRITER JUST GETS ME. Supernatural"._

Kurt blinked at the excitement, unsure how to respond. "He did read it, then," was the first thing he could mutter.

He glanced at the sidebar, and gaped at the picture. It was of a curly haired man, with stunning hazel eyes and wearing eyeliner to enhance the hazel. The man was nearly as handsome as Jensen Ackles himself. He read the bio underneath the photo of the boy with inquisitive eyes.

"_**Hi, guys and gals, I'm Blaine, 16. I love to sing, and I have the biggest crush on Jensen Ackles. That guy can hit me up whenever he wants. I write Fanfiction, nowhere near as well as Destiel-and-Scarves, of course, but that's expected. I LOVE people talking to me, so send an ask. It makes me happy."**_

Kurt snorted in spite of himself. This person - Blaine - was funny. He studied the picture for a few minutes before gaining the courage to go to his 'ask' and leave a message.

"Hi," he said as he typed. "My name's Kurt. I'm flattered that you enjoy my work so much. Honestly, I've never had so much praise for a fic. It's a wonderful experience, especially because not every review is nice. Thanks, Blaine."

After a few minutes of hesitation, and a long period of staring at Blaine himself, Kurt moved his cursor to hit the follow button.


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**You can now follow Destiel-and-Scarves, NerdFanGasm101 (Sam) and Bowtiedjensenfreak!**

**Chapter Three**

_Destiel-and-Scarves__ asked a question._

As Blaine stared at the words, another e-mail popped up in his inbox.

_Destiel-and-Scarves__ started following you._

"Oh, god." Blaine covered his mouth with one hand, afraid that he might say something stupid that Jeff would remember forever and tell their friends.

"What is it?" Jeff asked, leaning over his shoulder to look at his screen. "What is it?" he asked again, confused. "You got a new follower? Are you as much of a loser online as you are in real life?"

Jeff's words got through to him enough for Blaine to smack him. "I am not a loser; online or in real life."

Jeff held his hands up in defeat and muttered something under his breath: "Whatever you say."

Blaine ignored him. "This is Destiel-and-Scarves_. _He's the best writer in the fandom! He's following me. He sent me a message. Oh god, I wonder what it says. He might think I'm a creepy stalker for reblogging his fic two seconds after he posted it. What if he's read my fic and hates it? I can't look–" He didn't get another word in before Jeff slapped his palm over his mouth, muffling his words.

"Blaine, shut up. Why don't you tell me what he said so I can get on with my life? I don't want you fainting from excitement." Blaine rolled his eyes at his crazy roommate, took a deep breath, and changed tabs, pressing the little red number '1' on top of his mail icon.

"No I can't," Blaine said, shaking his head and switching tabs before his inbox had finished loading.

"God dammit, Blaine," Jeff groaned, pulling the computer from Blaine's slippery hands. "I have a life," he said, as he put the computer in his own lap.

Jeff snorted and handed the computer back to Blaine, though not before changing tabs again so he couldn't read it. "What did he say?" Blaine asked. "No wait, don't tell me. I don't want to know. Or do I?" He shook his head. "No, I don't. I can't. I shouldn't. Should I?" Jeff laughed at Blaine's helpless expression.

"Relax Blaine; it's not awful." With that, Jeff turned his back to Blaine and went into their shared bathroom to take a shower. Blaine bit his lip, staring at the small mail icon.

Taking a deep breath and shutting his eyes as hard as he could, Blaine clicked. He stayed still for a few seconds before opening his eyes a fraction. He realized he was being stupid and opened his eyes, taking in every word of the message on the screen in front of him.

_Hi, I'm Kurt. I'm flattered that you like my work so much. I've never had so much praise for a fic. It's a wonderful experience, especially because not every review is nice. Thanks, Blaine._

"Oh god, oh god." Blaine's breathing sped up as he read the message again and again. He managed to calm himself down a few minutes later, hoping that Jeff hadn't heard his outburst. From the sound of the shower still going, he had hope that he hadn't.

What was important was that freaking Kurt Destiel-and-Scarves had sent him a message. He had thanked him for praising his fic. Oh god. He had read Blaine's tags. He had read Blaine freaking out and flailing in his tags about Kurt's newest fic.

And how the fuck was he supposed to answer that message? What he wanted to do was freak out and thank him for messaging him while screaming (or writing in caps) about how much he loved Kurt's fics. But he knew that would make him sound crazy. Then again, after reading his tags, Kurt probably already thought that.

As Blaine was busy weighing his options, Jeff emerged from the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist and another in his hands as he toweled his hair dry. "So," he started, dropping his towel onto his bed and going over to his dresser and opening the drawers to pull out clothes. "I gather from your squeal earlier that you read the message?"

Blaine blushed. "I didn't squeal," he said.

Jeff laughed. "Sure, whatever you say. So, did he send you another message? Or isn't he on right now?"

"Um," Blaine said. "I haven't replied yet."

"What?" Jeff turned around, a heap of clothes in his hands, to stare at Blaine where he sat perched on his bed, right where he had left him. "Don't tell me you've been sitting here for 20 minutes staring at the computer screen. Please tell me you've at least done something else than stare at his message. Tell me you've reblogged weird pictures or something."

Blaine stared sheepishly at Jeff. Jeff groaned, dragging a hand down the side of his face. "Dammit Blaine, you're hopeless. Just answer the fucking message."

Blaine shook his head, hands resting on the keyboard in front of him. "I don't know what to say," he admitted.

"It's not that hard, Blaine, just tell him you're a huge fan of his work or something and try not to make a fool of yourself. If you don't answer that message, I will, and trust me, it won't be pretty."

"Fine, I'll do it. Stay away from my computer." Swallowing, Blaine pressed the answer button and started typing.

_Hi Kurt. As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm a huge fan. I've read every fic you've ever written (even your early Wincest ones), and I love everything. But I must say, I don't understand how anyone __**doesn't**__ love your fics, because they're amazing._

Blaine hesitated a few seconds before hitting send, feeling confident that he hadn't come off as a crazy stalker or something. Well, maybe a little. Oh god, he shouldn't have mentioned the Wincest fics. What if Kurt hated people reminding him of them? Shit.

Wallowing in despair at having ruined every chance he had at starting a friendship with Destiel-and-Scarves, Blaine closed his laptop and went to take a shower. If he was lucky he could drown himself and never have to worry about Kurt seeing his message. He would have to worry about Jeff seeing his browser history.

That was a small price to pay for escaping Kurt's wrath.


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter was written by me.**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Kurt's day was awful.

It started similar to every weekday. He woke up, ignored his laptop so he wouldn't be distracted by that damned site and took a few minutes to choose a sensible, but fashionable, outfit. He chose a simple sweater, with jeans that fit his body in the best way possible.

Now, though, as he sat in his bedroom looking once more at his reflection, he could honestly say he'd never looked worse. The fabric of his beige sweater was torn, a cut on his skin from the dumpster toss this morning. Kurt sighed, as he realized he'd have to spend time sewing to fix the tear. His jeans were covered in dirt and a horrid wet stain sat at the top of them, ensuring that it looked like Kurt wet himself. "Stupid jocks," he muttered in annoyance, heading to the bathroom to wash his injuries and change into an outfit suitable for lounging in his home.

After cleaning up, he returned to his bed, carrying his laptop with him. His followers were lovely people, girls and boys who praised his works with love. He loved them, even if he didn't follow them. His dash was too full.

Kurt grimaced as he thought about the message he sent yesterday to that hot guy. He'd only done it because the teenager was striking. "That's not the only reason," he chided himself, annoyed at being shallow. "He seemed nice."

Kurt never understood why people liked his fics so much. They weren't that good in themselves, especially not his earlier Wincest ones. The basic plot summary of those particular ones was "Sam and Dean kiss and then have kinky sex".

He had broken through with a Destiel fanfic. He was sixteen when he wrote his first Destiel fanfic. A short drabble, focused on emotions, but it rocketed and he still saw people reblogging it to this day.

He logged on to his account, smiling at the first post on his dash. Misha Collins had tweeted his number. "What an insane man," he said fondly. Misha was his favorite cast member when it came to interacting with fans. It was hard to not like someone who renewed his vows dressed as a bride.

Kurt trembled as he looked at his inbox. '100?' he questioned in disbelief. He never had that many messages in his inbox. It meant his fic was either a massive flop or a great success. He hoped for the latter. Kurt couldn't deal, after his dreadful day, to get any more hate. He needed compliments today.

"It can't hurt," Kurt reminded himself. "They're strangers online. They have no power over me."

He clicked the mail icon, wincing as the page loaded and the first message looked at him. "_I think this fic is my favorite of yours! Stunning character development! Wow." _

Kurt blushed and typed a short, but polite, response.

Scrolling, he found a new message from Sam. _"Hey, dude! I read ur new fic. Gimme that talent, pls! I want it!"_

Kurt grinned. "I learned from the best," he typed. Sam had taught him about the fandom online.

He continued to sort his messages, happy that there were no hate messages present. Tumblr made him feel better.

He paused as he recognized the icon on the left next to the message. The handsome boy who reblogged his fic two seconds after he posted it. Kurt felt his cheeks burn as he realized that he was staring at the man's curly hair again.

Shaking his head, his eyes scanned the message in his inbox. "_Hi Kurt. As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm a huge fan. I've read every fic you've ever written (even your early Wincest ones), and I love everything. But I must say, I don't understand how anyone __**doesn't**__ love your fics, because they're amazing.__"_

Kurt didn't know how to respond. The guy - Blaine, he remembered - was adorable and nervous. The simple praise thrust upon his shoulders proved that Blaine was, indeed, a big fan of his works.

Kurt frowned as he realized that this gorgeous teenager had read his Wincest fics. Those were the fics that he tried to hide from the Tumblr community. He didn't even like Wincest. Sam's fault. He forced him to try and write something for the fandom and Kurt let him choose the pairing. He winced at the memory. _That decides it_, he thought. _I'm never listening to Sam's advice again._

Blaine seemed like a charmer. Nice, but obsessive. Kurt wasn't sure whether he should respond. He didn't want to ruin the curly haired boy's opinion about him. Blaine seemed to think he was an angel, by the way he spoke to him.

In that moment, Kurt knew he had to respond. It would be cruel not to at least thank him. He'd sent him a message before.

Unsure what to say, his fingers hovered over the keys. "_Don't talk about those Wincest fics, they were bad judgment on my part. Thanks for the compliment." _What else could he say in response? "_You look like you should be on America's Next Top Model. ;)."_

Kurt hit send before he realized exactly what he had said. "Fuck," he said into his pillow, embarrassed. Maybe he could remedy the situation. He typed in Blaine's URL and sent him another quick message, apologizing for his bluntness.

"_Shit, I'm sorry, that was a weird thing to say. I mean, you are handsome and it is true but... I'm so embarrassed. Ah, sorry. I'm just going to hide under my covers and stay there."_

Kurt exhaled, closing his eyes and hoping that he hadn't been too idiotic.

There was only one way to remedy this situation, he realized, as he went to Project Free TV and clicked Supernatural. "Changing Channels is the perfect medicine."

He sat, plugging his headphones into his laptop with a grin, and began to watch the episode. It helped take his mind off the humiliation of the entire day.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**Chapter Five**

Blaine's morning started just like any other morning. His alarm went off, he hit the snooze button, and he fell asleep, only to wake up again nine minutes later when his alarm went off once again. He dragged himself out of bed and into the bathroom, a heap of clothing in his hands.

A few minutes later he emerged, hair just as he liked it, shirt tucked into a freshly pressed pair of pants and his blazer buttoned. He reached to pick up his tie and draped it around his neck. "Jeff, get the fuck out of bed or you're going to be late," he said, hands working quickly to fix his tie. Behind him, Jeff groaned.

"Just five more minutes," he croaked.

"That's what you say every day," Blaine said with an eye roll, picking up his bag and heading towards the door. "Do you want me to leave without you? Or are you going to get your ass out of bed and into the bathroom in the next five seconds so that you might have time to eat some breakfast before classes start?"

"Yes, mother, stop pestering me," Jeff said, sitting up and throwing his legs over the side of his bed to stumble blindly into the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

"You do realize that all your clothes are out here, right?" Blaine yelled through the closed door.

He could make out a muffled "Fuck," from the other side and had to concentrate not to laugh. Two seconds later the door banged open and Jeff ran over to his dresser, pulled out some clothes and ran back inside. Blaine leaned against the wall, watching with amusement.

When they finally made it to breakfast, nearly everyone had already left for class. The only people still in the cafeteria were Thad, Nick, two freshmen Blaine didn't know and a blonde senior named Dan who passed them in the doorway. Once they had collected their food, they went over to sit with Thad and Nick, who were obviously just finishing and getting ready to leave.

"Well, well, well, look at who the cat dragged in," Nick drawled, a smirk on his face as Blaine and Jeff sat down with their bowls of cereal.

"Yeah, no thanks to Sleepy over here," Blaine said, waving his spoon in the general direction of where Jeff was sitting next to him. "I'm sure if I hadn't dragged him out of bed he'd be sleeping until dinner."

"Hey!" Jeff tried to speak through a mouthful of food. "I was just getting up when you started freaking out about how we were going to be late and all that crap."

Blaine snorted. "Hah. You were _snoring_ for god's sake. Is that what you call 'just getting up'?"

"I think it's time for us to leave," Thad said, sharing a look with Nick as they got up and lifted their trays. "I guess we'll see the two of you at warblers practice later?" Blaine nodded, checking his watch as he did.

"Shit, Jeff, it's nearly nine," he said, swallowing down the rest of his food and grabbing his bag off the floor. "Move, Sterling, we need to go." Jeff nodded silently as he picked up his own bag and followed Blaine out into the hallway.

Classes seemed to go even slower than usual, and it felt like days later when their French teacher finally let them go. It was four in the afternoon, and Blaine wanted nothing more than to go back to his room and sleep for three days straight. Or better yet, go back to his room and spend a few hours on Tumblr.

But since he had three tests to revise for and a solo for Sectionals he needed to perfect, that wasn't going to happen. That's how Blaine found himself in the library with Jeff, trying to solve twenty math problems in the short hour before practice.

Wes decided that since Sectionals was only a few weeks away they had to stay late. Which also meant that they missed dinner. "I'm sorry about this, guys, but we can't risk losing Sectionals. And don't worry about the food; we're getting pizza delivered in half an hour."

By the time Blaine stumbled his way back to his room an hour and a half later he was ready to drop dead. But since he couldn't, considering the fact that he still wasn't finished studying, he figured he could at least take a short internet break. After all, he hadn't been online all day, and he was beginning to feel lost.

Opening Tumblr, he was surprised to see that he had two new messages in his inbox. Thinking that it was probably just spam, Blaine clicked it. What he definitely didn't expect was two new messages from Destiel-and-scarves.

"_Don't talk about those Wincest fics; they were bad judgment on my part. Thanks for the compliment. You look like you should be on America's Next Top Model. ;)"_

"_Shit, I'm sorry, that was a weird thing to say. I mean, you are handsome and it is true but... I'm so embarrassed. Ah, sorry. I'm just going to hide under my covers and stay there."_

A blush quickly creeped its way up his neck as he read the messages. Kurt thought he looked good. And he was embarrassed about it.

Blaine honestly had no idea how he was supposed to answer that. What do you say when one of your favorite bloggers tells you he thinks you look like a model? Especially when Blaine couldn't for the life of him understand why Kurt had said it.

It wasn't that he wasn't aware of the way other people looked at him. He had just never been able to see the appeal himself. Especially in the picture he used as an icon and in his sidebar. His curls were free of gel and he had a goofy smile plastered on his face. Not exactly what he would consider hot.

Pressing the answer button, Blaine hesitated, hands hovering over his keyboard.

_You don't have to apologize. Trust me, I've heard a lot of weird things, and that didn't even make the top ten. Thank you though _

_And besides, if one of us were going to be on America's Next Top Model, it wouldn't be me ;) _

He pressed the send button before he had time to change his mind, closed the laptop and picked up his books. He was getting ready to spend a few hours thinking more about math and less about Kurt and how he might react to his answer. He had more important things to worry about.


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter was written by me.**

**Chapter Six**

"'Sup, homo?" one of the jocks sneered at Kurt as he was shoved into the lockers, his messenger bag slamming against the hard material.

Kurt refused to answer, biting his tongue. The jocks feasted off the reactions of their victims. Kurt had a sharp tongue that whipped out great remarks and wiped the smug grins off those jocks faces. He stopped responding once he realized that criticizing them led to more pain and bruises.

The jocks continued walking past as Kurt sunk to the floor, too exhausted to put up even a little fight. His whole body was aching and he didn't think there was an unharmed patch on his skin. Lifting his messenger bag, he arranged it so it didn't rest heavily on his aching bones.

"Hey, fag!" Kurt jumped as another shout made him glance upwards. His least favorite bully, none other than Dave Karofsky, was holding an ominous red cup in his hands. Kurt groaned as he felt the cool slap of the slushy on his face and his coat.

"Girls bathroom," he muttered, wiping as much of the cherry slushy out of his eyes as possible. He felt a hand grab his arm and lead him in the correct direction. "Thanks... Tina?"

"I don't get why they do this to you every day." Tina responded, sitting him down on the toilet seat. "They target all of us in Glee Club but you seem to get extra favorable treatment."

Kurt frowned and pointed to his face. "Gay," he explained.

"Not a good reason." Tina replied, dabbing at Kurt's slushy-covered face with a tissue. "You do have a spare change of clothes in your locker?"

"Tina, you're talking to _me_." Kurt said bluntly.

Tina almost managed to look abashed. "I'll go get them. You stay here and clean yourself up. We can't have you going to Glee Club looking like Darth Maul."

Kurt blinked. "You know Star Wars characters?"

"I dated Artie." Tina explained. "Also, it was pretty damn good. Now, I'm going to get your clothes, and you're going to sit here and wait, like a good boy."

"Yes, mom." Kurt joked, ignoring the glare Tina gave him, and looking down with slight embarrassment.

Kurt dabbed at his face with the wet tissue, shifting his feet as he waited for Tina to return. Figuring the majority of the slushy was gone from his face, he walked over to the mirror and ensured he looked normal.

Tina hurried back in, her footsteps clicking against the bathroom floor. "Here," she said, shoving the clothes at him and taking in his reflection. "Much better. Now, I'm going to find Mike. He has some explaining to do."

"What's wrong with Mike?" Kurt inquired, concerned.

"None of your business. Now get changed! Glee Club's in five minutes!"

Kurt grimaced and nodded at Tina's bossy tone. "Thank you!" he shouted, as Tina left the bathroom. Even though she could be a bitch, she was also, undeniably, a good friend.

After changing into an outfit that was not as stylish as his previous one, Kurt exited the bathroom, keeping an eye out for stray jocks. He didn't have another spare change of clothes in his locker. He let out a sigh of relief as he got to the choir room in one piece, sitting next to Mercedes and Rachel. They were both eyeing him in confusion.

"Boo..." Mercedes whispered. "What's wrong? You look like you just found out Lady Gaga died."

Kurt sniffed, smiling at Mercedes, and pulling his scarf tighter around his neck to hide his bruises. "I'm fine, 'Cedes. I had a run in with the jocks. That's all that happened. I promise."

Mercedes nodded, unconvinced, but patted his hand. "Tell me if they do it again. I'll get Santana to go all Lima Heights on their asses."

Kurt chuckled and leaned into Mercedes, comfortable and safe. Rachel eyed the two of them with a little jealousy, but decided to remain quiet and wait until it was her time to sing.

Kurt turned to Rachel with a small grin and reached out a hand. The small brunette blinked and took it in her own, frowning. "Have you officially gone insane? It could help you on the road to stardom but I don't believe it's the most scenic route."

Kurt shrugged, tired. "I appreciate my friends, that's all. Now go up there and show them real singing. Your voice is the next Barbra Streisand."

Rachel blinked, exchanging confused glances with Mercedes, and made her way over to the center of the room before beginning to belt out a strong Celine Dion melody.

Kurt listened appreciatively. Rachel was talented.

After Glee Club was over, Kurt took the bus home. Ever since his dad had banned his 'baby', he hadn't been allowed to have another vehicle of any kind. Kurt was still mad about that fact. Busses were dirty and crowded and they smelt of sulfur.

After the riveting journey, he made his way into his bedroom in the basement, locking the door behind him, and logging on to Tumblr. He headed over to Sam's Tumblr - 'NerdGasmFan101' - and typed a quick ask, saying how he thought he had sounded amazing today in Glee Club.

Sam's reply came instantaneously. "_Thanks, dude! Mercedes killed her number 2. Just, wow! I didn't no she could sing like that! Y didn't u sing? U woulda been awesome. :( "_

Kurt laughed at Sam's appraisal of Mercedes. Sam was obvious when it came to his crushes and Mercedes had made her way on to the list of pretty girls Sam fancied.

"_I didn't sing because of certain reasons. I promise to sing next time, okay? I'll sing Carry On My Wayward Son if it pleases you that much... Though I don't think I have the right vocal range for it... Maybe we should do a duet."_

Kurt, satisfied with his response, hit send and looked through his other messages.

"_You don't have to apologize. Trust me, I've heard a lot of weird things, and that didn't even make the top ten. Thank you though__.__ :)_

_And besides, if one of us were going to be on America's Next Top Model, it wouldn't be me ;). "_

Kurt paused at his laptop, staring at the message in disbelief. A stranger had complimented his appearance. His icon contained both him and Sam. How did the stranger know which one was him?

Kurt relaxed as he remembered his 'About Me' page. He had uploaded a picture on there to stop fans from asking his age. It wasn't a very nice picture, in Kurt's opinion. His face was pale, providing a stark contrast with the darkness of his eyelashes and the strange glasz color of his eyes. Just a plain boring old picture. Something about it had clearly drawn this stranger's attention.

"Top Model?" he muttered, almost putting his face in his hands from the embarrassment. "He thinks I should be on it? No... No way."

"_I wish I could be on it. I'm not pretty or handsome enough, though, I'm afraid. I'd much rather be a designer for the models. The clothes they wear - just heavenly."_

He blinked, wondering if he was being too boring. He didn't want Blaine to stop speaking to him, if he could help it. Suddenly an idea struck him that would force Blaine to speak to him, no matter how awkward the conversation got.

"_I'm writing a new fic, a genre I've never done before. Ever. I'm looking for a beta. It says in your bio you read and write fanfiction... Would you consider being my beta? Please."_

There, Kurt grinned as he hit send, not too forward and not flirty at all. He hugged his pillow tightly to his chest, his smile wide.

He was excited for Blaine's next message.


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**Chapter Seven**

"_I wish I could be on it. I'm not pretty or handsome enough, though, I'm afraid. I'd much rather be a designer for the models. The clothes they wear - just heavenly. I'm writing a new fic, a genre I've never done before. Ever. I'm looking for a beta. It says in your bio you read and write fanfiction... Would you consider being my beta? Please."_

Blaine stared at the words before him, mouth hanging open. Kurt wanted him to beta for him. Him. Blaine Devon Anderson. Blaine cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure before Jeff noticed something was wrong and teased him about it for the rest of his existence.

Blaine was still as amazed as he had been two days earlier that Kurt was actually talking to him. He almost wanted to congratulate himself for not having fucked it up yet.

He grinned to himself as he went to answer the message.

_If you're even half as good at designing clothes as you are at writing fic I wouldn't be surprised if every A-lister in Hollywood wanted you to design their clothes. ;)_

_And ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! YOU WANT /ME/ TO BE YOUR FUCKING BETA? _

Blaine erased the sentence, thinking back to the 'not having fucked it up yet' part, and tried again.

_And are you kidding me? I would love to be your beta! I have to warn you though; I don't have any experience beta__-__ing. And I'm not a great writer._

Somewhat happy with his answer, Blaine pressed send and went back to his normal blogging.

Noticing that a lot of people seemed to be reblogging the same pictures of Jensen from the same user, Blaine opened the person's blog, hoping to find someone new to follow. NerdGasmFan101 turned out to be **"Sam, 17 year old fan boy from Ohio who loves Supernatural. Send me a message if you want to talk, I'm pretty much always on. Except for when I'm in glee club. That's pretty much the only thing in my life that's cooler than Tumblr."**

"What the hell," Blaine thought. If he'd managed to talk to Kurt for two days it couldn't exactly do any harm to talk to another guy. Especially when he lived in the same state as Blaine, liked Supernatural and encouraged people to send him messages.

"_Hi Sam, I'm Blaine. I'm from Ohio too, and I think it's really awesome that you like spn! Um… I don't really know what else to say, so bye, I guess…_"

Well, he could have been more awkward, Blaine figured, hitting send and following the guy as he was heading back to his dashboard. And besides, it's not like he had anything to lose. He didn't know this guy, and the guy didn't know him. He just wanted to talk to a fellow nerd.

As he was busy trying to convince himself he hadn't done anything stupid, Sam answered him.

"_Oh my god, that's awsum! Where in Ohio do u liv? I live in Lima. Is that close to u_?"

Blaine was somewhat confused by the guys spelling, but figured that it was none of his business. Instead he answered the message.

"_I'm from Westerville, which I think is about two hours away from Lima, so it's not too far away. I can't believe I'm finding so many spn fans here! I used to think I was the only one!_"

They spent a while like that, talking about Supernatural and other mutual interests, like glee club. Blaine told Sam about the Warblers and Sam told Blaine about his glee club, the New Directions. The name made Blaine laugh and he asked Sam if he realized how bad the name sounded.

"Haha, yea, I know. It was our teacher that came up with it though, and I doubt he's gonna change it anytime soon."

Blaine laughed again, drawing a look from Jeff at the other side of the room. "What's so funny?" he asked curiously. Jeff never could resist a good joke.

"There's this guy on Tumblr, he's from Lima, you know that small town like, two hours away? But anyway, he was telling me about his glee club, the New Directions. Just try to say that name out loud _without_ laughing, I dare you."

Jeff wasn't laughing though. He was staring at Blaine blankly. "What?" he asked, defensively. "He said the New Directions?" Jeff asked slowly.

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Yes, but do you realize how awful that sounds? It sounds like –"

"We're meeting New Directions at Sectionals," Jeff said, interrupting Blaine.

Blaine blinked slowly. "What, are you – are you serious?"

"Yes, don't you remember? David told us last week."

Blaine was silent for a second, trying to remember. He couldn't remember the exact names but yes, New Directions did sound a bit familiar. "This is awesome!" Blaine exclaimed loudly, grinning at Jeff.

"It is indeed. You can ask him what songs they are doing!"

Blaine's smile faded. "I'm not going to do that Jeff. That would be cheating."

Jeff held his hands up in surrender. "Yeah, okay, fine. It was worth a shot."

Turning back to his computer, Blaine's smile returned. "I have to tell Sam about this," he muttered to himself, immediately going to his blog to send him a message.

"_Hey, Sam, guess what? My glee club – the Warblers – is meeting your glee club – the New Directions at Sectionals! How cool is that? Maybe we'll see each other there!_"

Blaine couldn't believe this. The second person he had talked to on Tumblr, after Kurt, lived merely two hours away, and was in a rival glee club. Kurt lived in Ohio too, he said that he liked to sing, and he was the same age as Sam. Maybe Kurt was in glee club too, at his own school. And maybe it wasn't too far away from Westerville.

But honestly, what were the odds that, in just a few days, Blaine would find not only one, but two people who liked Supernatural, were in glee club, and lived within driving distance from Dalton? He couldn't dare to hope for that much. So he settled for hoping that he could at least meet Sam, instead of hoping that he would by some miracle get to meet Kurt too.


	8. Chapter 8

**This chapter was written by me.**

**Chapter Eight**

Kurt brushed his teeth thoroughly, not allowing himself to think of the jocks and their constant bullying. Dave Karofsky had seemed to increase the amount of slushy's aimed at him recently and Kurt was getting nervous. He didn't understand why the stupid meathead was focusing on him so much. It couldn't be based on his sexuality alone... There must be another reason for the increased amount featured in the morning routine.

Kurt undressed with care, folding his clothes and putting them in the laundry pile he'd created, until he was left in just his dark boxers. Throwing himself onto the bed, he burrowed himself under the silk-woven covers, ignoring the world around him. His blankets always made him feel protected and safe.

Eyeing the clock on the wall, he noticed the time was merely eight thirty. His dad was probably wondering why he'd gone to bed so early. Kurt didn't want to admit how bad the bullying had gotten to his father. He didn't need to know, not after his heart attack.

He reached over to the floor, for once not caring about his untidiness, and picked up his laptop. If he was correct, Blaine should have responded to his question by now. Kurt blushed as he remembered the desperation in his message. He should have probably stuck to the casual talking that the two of them had been enjoying.

Logging on, he saw a new message from Sam. "_Dude, guess what? I made another friend. Some un who isn't u!_"

Kurt wanted to respond with something witty about Sam's appalling spelling, but Sam was his friend. He couldn't be mean to him. "_I'm glad. You deserve more friends on this site than just me. I'm only good for cosplaying and fanfiction._"

He smiled at some of the compliments from his biggest fans. He could always count on _DinahCassie _and _drivingintheimpala _to review and adore his stories. They helped raise his confidence, even after his whole day had been awful.

Finally he came across _bowtiedjensenfreak_. Kurt gasped again as he took in the new profile picture beside it. It was of a boy - Blaine - dressed as the eleventh Doctor. He looked incredible in the raggedy jacket and a pristine bowtie. Kurt could almost feel himself drooling at how adorable and somehow sexy the boy looked.

"Don't," he muttered to himself. "You're not even sure if he's gay. Even if he does have Jensen in his URL... And his blog's made up of Jensen Ackles... He reads Destiel fic... Oh god, he actually might be gay."

Kurt's smile brightened at the possibility. It dimmed as he realized that Sam also had a blog dedicated to Supernatural and read Destiel fic, but was one hundred percent straight. Blaine could be just like Sam.

"Just read the message," he told himself through gritted teeth. "The sooner you read the message, the sooner it'll be over with."

"_If you're even half as good at designing clothes as you are at writing fic I wouldn't be surprised if every A-lister in Hollywood wanted you to design their clothes. ;)_

_And are you kidding me? I would love to be your beta! I have to warn you though; I don't have any experience beta__-__ing. And I'm not a great writer.__"_

Kurt sat paralyzed for two whole minutes, shocked at the response. Blaine _had _to be gay. It was simply not fair if he wasn't. Hot, sweet and honest? There wasn't a better combination for a potential love interest. The only way he could be any more perfect was if he sang and loved musical theater as much as Kurt himself did.

He frowned as he re-read the part about Blaine not being a great writer. If that was the case, it was probably better if he didn't beta Kurt's fic. Kurt did want it to be perfect, or as perfect a fanfiction could be.

Heading over to Blaine's blog, he decided to look at the boy's drabbles and judge if he was up to the job of editing Kurt's fic.

Clicking on the link appropriately titled 'Destiel Drabbles and Favorite Fics: A Masterlist' he soon found himself staring at twenty different drabbles, all with a little information underneath them. Kurt frowned at the titles - 'Romancin' and Dancin'', 'Smoking On the Water' and 'Jumping Impala's'. He decided then and there that asking Blaine for help with a title was not something he should even consider.

He clicked on 'Jumping Impala's' due to his curiosity. After a few shocked moments, he found himself laughing at the absurdity of the fic. It was well-written and the characterization was impeccable. The only issue was the plot. It was about the Impala jumping over the moon and bringing down certain demons who'd been hidden on the moon for a long time. Kurt laughed at the strangeness of it all. Despite the random plot, it was a fun read, and the romance... Kurt didn't know people could write romance like that.

"_Don't be so harsh on yourself!" _Kurt started his message, chiding Blaine for making so little of his talent. "_I read 'Jumping Impala's' and it was incredible. The plot could use some work, but your writing style and the characterization are just... Perfection. The Destiel was so romantic. I wish I could have a romance like that. It's everything I've ever wanted. You have to be my beta. Please."_

Kurt beamed, hitting send, envisioning having a romance as sweet as the one Blaine had managed to produce in his drabble. He would love a boy to hold him close, take him everywhere with pride and love.

He wanted someone to love him for who he was. If someone couldn't love him for all his flaws, they weren't the right person for him.

Kurt Hummel wanted romance.

He returned to Blaine's page, glancing at his profile picture again with a lopsided smile. Maybe Blaine could help him find the person he was meant to be with.


	9. Chapter 9

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**Chapter Nine**

"Will everyone please be quiet?" Thad's voice was far too quiet for anyone to listen to him. He needed to be more assertive. He needed to be stricter. Like Wes. "Everyone, SHUT UP," he yelled, glaring at every single person in the room as if they were all responsible for killing his mother.

"Now, we have called this emergency meeting of the Warblers because –"

"Because we're just a week away from Sectionals, we know. You do this before every competition, it's hardly a surprise anymore," Jeff said with an eye roll.

Murmurs of agreement made their way through the room for a few seconds until Wes called for order again. "So, as I was saying, we have called this emergency meeting of the Warblers because Sectionals is coming up. It's just a week away, and we need to make sure that we're ready. Which is why we will be spending the next two hours, or more, if necessary, going through our routine."

A collective groan filled the room as the Warblers accepted their fate. They would be spending their Friday night at school. Lovely.

"And if anyone has anything new to tell us they think we should know, now is the time to say it," said David.

Blaine stayed silent. He didn't know anything they needed to know. At least he thought he didn't.

"Blaine has been talking to someone from New Directions." Blaine's head snapped around to stare at Jeff, ignoring the way every pair of eyes in the room turned to him.

"Warbler Blaine is this true? Have you been fraternizing with the enemy?"

"Guys, it's not like that. I was just talking to someone online who turned out to be in the New Directions, it's not like I told him our set list or anything. I'm not stupid."

Wes narrowed his eyes as he looked at him, as if he was expecting to see the word 'LIAR' printed in red ink on his forehead or something. "Very well. As long as you don't let them know any of our secrets, I guess we can allow this friendship."

Blaine rolled his eyes, thinking to himself that it was none of their damn business who he was friends with, but keeping it to himself. He wasn't in the mood to argue.

Blaine wanted nothing more than to zone out and come up with some alternate reality where he was Jensen Ackles' boyfriend or something. But, since he was their lead singer, he felt he had to be a good example for the other guys. And that meant listening and paying attention to what the council said. Even though it was boring as hell and half of it didn't really make sense nor have anything to do with the competition.

"But are we sure we shouldn't have ordered Chinese instead of Indian? Indian food might upset their stomachs, and we don't want any of them getting sick."

"That chair in my dorm room really did look better on the other side, didn't it? Will you help me move it later, David?"

"What, no, you can do it yourself."

"Warbler Blaine, I assume you're ready to go?" Wes asked after what felt like hours and hours of their constant bickering.

Blaine shot out of his seat, straightened his tie and gave them one of his most charming smiles to assure them he had indeed been listening all this time. "Yes, Wes, I am ready."

Wes nodded to himself. "Alright Warblers, let's go through the choreography once, and then we'll do the entire number with Blaine's solo."

When not a single one of the Warblers seemed to hear him, Wes sighed, picked up his gavel and banged it sharply against the desk twice. At once, the Warblers, most of whom had been close to falling asleep, shot to their feet.

"Positions," David called, and they immediately scrambled to find their places, Blaine in the middle.

A few hours later – more accurately two hours and fifty-seven minutes later – the council finally deemed them acceptable, and let them leave.

Blaine and Jeff made their way back to their room, and as soon as the door was open, Blaine dropped down on his bed, while Jeff all but ran into the bathroom. When he returned a few minutes later, it was to find Blaine still lying on his bed, still in his uniform. His eyes were closed, but he wasn't asleep. Not yet.

"Hey, a few of us were going to head over to Nick and Thad's room and watch a movie. You in?"

Blaine opened his eyes and turned his head towards Jeff. "Nah man, I think I'll pass. I'm really tired… I think I'm just going to go to bed."

Jeff nodded. "Sure, I kind of figured, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Don't fall asleep in your uniform, okay? I don't want to come back here at two am or something just to find out that I have to undress you."

Blaine mumbled something vaguely resembling a yes, and Jeff left the room. Sighing softly, Blaine slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. He picked up his laptop from its almost permanent place next to his bed, flipped it open and scanned Tumblr.

He had two new messages, one from Sam and one from Kurt.

"_Whoa man that's awsum, hop there!"_

Blaine smiled vaguely at the words, thinking back to how the Warblers had reacted. They were being ridiculous.

"_Yeah, me too! It would be really awesome to finally have someone irl to talk to about Spn!"_

He hit send, and read the next message, the one from Kurt.

"_Don't be so harsh on yourself__! __I read 'Jumping Impala's' and it was incredible. The plot could use some work, but your writing style and the characterization are just... Perfection. The Destiel was so romantic. I wish I could have a romance like that. It's everything I've ever wanted. You have to be my beta. Please."_

He had gotten some praise for his stories before, but not one of those messages meant as much to him as the one from Kurt did. Hell, all of those messages put together didn't even come close to how much this meant to him. And he didn't know if there were words big enough to express his gratitude.

"_Oh, wow, thank you, Kurt, you have no idea how much that means to hear you say that. And about the plot... Well, I wrote that one at two am after a party with some friends. I was kinda… out of it, to put it like that: P_

_But yes, yes I'll be your beta. I'll do my best."_

Blaine hit send, happy with his response. Too tired to do anything else, he closed his laptop, changed into his pajamas and went to sleep with a smile on his face.


	10. Chapter 10

**This chapter was written by me.**

**Chapter Ten**

Kurt panicked as he looked at the mess in his room. He double checked his phone, frowning as he read the latest text from none other than Rachel Berry. He liked the girl, he really did, but he could have used a bit more warning before she suddenly decided to barge into his life.

His laptop was the first thing that needed to be sorted. Picking it up, he logged out and switched to 'Guest'. That would stop Rachel from finding his Tumblr account and his increasingly smutty Dean Winchester centric fanfictions. Ensuring that his entire history was clean and nobody could see what he got up to in his spare time, he opened Google Chrome, leaving the YouTube homepage open on his monitor.

He grimaced as he noticed the disorderly clothes on the floor. Ever since Carole and Finn had moved in with them, Kurt had forgone his constant state of cleanliness. He was still the tidiest person in the house, after all.

Sighing, he folded the clothes neatly and placed them in the correct drawers with little fuss. Rachel was Finn's girlfriend - he was entirely certain she'd seen a worse mess. Glancing around his room and deciding it was bearable and pleasant enough for Rachel's tastes, he headed over to his laptop and typed 'Barbra Streisand' into the YouTube search bar, knowing that Rachel would be satisfied with his choice. The young Berry believed herself to be the next Streisand role model.

"Kurt! Rachel's here!"

Kurt nodded to himself, scurrying up the stairs to greet Rachel with a tight-lipped smile. "I prefer to know my guests are coming over at least a day in advance, Rachel."

Rachel didn't even flinch at his ice cold tone. "We need to pick a song. I have an idea for our duet, but I wanted your expert opinion on it."

Kurt rolled his eyes but didn't say anything in response. He beckoned Rachel to follow him and she obliged, chattering insistently. Kurt didn't know whether to be thankful for the constant chit-chat or annoyed at the incessant babbling. He chose to be grateful. Rachel Berry was better to have as a friend than an enemy.

He pointed to his laptop on the bed and Rachel squealed with excitement. "Barbra? You want to do Barbra? Oh, I knew I chose the right duet partner."

Kurt tried to keep himself from smiling but the compliment made him feel better. "Of course you did," he scoffed, a smile emerging on his face as he noticed Rachel's sudden muffled enthusiasm at his response. "I'm the only one in that Glee Club who shares your passion."

Rachel beamed at him, facing the laptop, her eyes searching quickly. "I'll show you the piece I wanted to do... Tell me if you like it. I think it will be perfect for a duet between the two of us. It matches my vocal ability completely and you're one of the most talented singers in Glee Club, excluding myself and Mercedes, of course."

"Of course," Kurt obliged fondly. "What song did you have in mind, Miss Berry?"

Rachel held a finger up, typing the title into YouTube and clicking the first result. "It's the perfect song for us!" she exclaimed with excitement. "You know it is. Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand."

Kurt opened his mouth, impressed. "Exceptional choice," he agreed. "I'm guessing you're going to be filling the talented Barbra Streisand's shoes and I'm going to be stuck in the intimidating ruby slippers of one Judy Garland?"

Rachel nodded with happiness. "It's the perfect song choice, don't you think?"

Kurt let a smile grace his usually sad face. "'Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again' is a classic. I couldn't be happier with your expert song choosing."

Rachel stood on her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to Kurt's cheek. "I'll see you in Glee Club tomorrow. Mr Schuester will probably let us sing this at Sectionals! We're bound to win if we sing together."

Kurt clasped his hands together, the nerves creeping up on him at the idea of being focused on during such a big competition. "We'll see," he said in response, hugging Rachel closely and then releasing her. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, tomorrow. Make sure to do some vocal warm-ups, I can't have a duet partner with a bad voice!"

Kurt nodded, watching her go with fondness. Rachel Berry was rapidly becoming one of his best friends. He didn't know how she'd managed it, but somehow her insane talking had one her a place of affection in Kurt's mind. He genuinely enjoyed her company.

Sad, but a little relieved that he still had time to check his computer, Kurt logged off the guest account and returned to his normal one. He'd left Tumblr open and smiled at the top post of a lawnmower following its dreams. The site was awfully weird, and Kurt wouldn't have it any other way. He loved it.

He opened Microsoft Word and the most recent document, scanning over the characterization and plot. It was rather good, if he did say so himself, an 'Alternate Universe' fic about Dean being a teenager who worked as a waiter and Cas being a regular visitor, who was trying desperately to hide an abusive relationship that he was in with his current boyfriend while he and Dean fell in love.

He saved the first chapter of his new fic and titled it appropriately. He didn't want Blaine to think him insane. Though there was a small possibility of that, seeing as Blaine himself wrote stories of floating cars. Blaine was evidently not as sane as one Kurt Hummel.

He headed to his Tumblr inbox, biting his lip as he read the first message from a random person he had never spoken to before. He responded with a polite response, disliking the way the person spoke and the icon of a man covered in blood. He knew it shouldn't affect him - he was a major Supernatural fan - but having to stare at something so gruesome for a long period of time caused his stomach to churn.

He scrolled down until he reached a familiar icon and exhaled in relief. Sam. "_Kurt, my freinds a Dalton kid, were gunna mete him next weekend, grate, rite?"_

Kurt frowned. "Dalton Warblers?" he said out loud, wondering if that was their full title. He'd not done his research on them, having been confident that his Glee Club was much better.

"_Sam, Rachel will kill you if she realizes you're speaking to the enemy! Please tell me you haven't mentioned anything about our set-list? I must admit, I am rather excited at the possibility of having yet another Supernatural friend. But - the point still stands!"_

Kurt sent his message, running a hand through his styled hair, ruffling it so much it became untidy. He looked at his mobile, pondering if he should send a text to Rachel about Sam fraternizing with the enemy, but decided against it. Sam just wanted a friend. Rachel had no business knowing what Sam did in his spare time.

He answered all the messages in his inbox and paused as he finally reached the one answer he was seeking. Blaine's icon was just as handsome as ever and Kurt wondered if it would be rude to stare at it for a few more minutes and drool. Blaine was gorgeous. It was unfair.

Tearing his eyes away, he looked at the response, hoping that Blaine had accepted his proposal. It would be nice to have a fan ensure his work was the epitome of perfection. A beta... He was rather bemused as to why he was so set against them in the past.

"_Oh, wow, thank you, Kurt, you have no idea how much that means to hear you say that. And about the plot... Well, I wrote that one at two am after a party with some friends. I was kinda… out of it, to put it like that: P_

_But yes, yes I'll be your beta. I'll do my best."_

Kurt outright laughed at Blaine's response, making both Burt and Finn knock loudly on his bedroom door to see if he was alright.

"I'm fine!" he shouted to the two of them. "Funny YouTube!"

The two men seemed to accept his response and Kurt could hear their retreating feet from where he sat, smiling broadly, wondering how he could respond.

"_I'm honored to have you as my beta. Two am? Wow, honey. That's one of the first rules I learned in fandom. Never write when tired. You'll get teased mercilessly for the rest of your life. Now, I need your email address. I can easily send you my chapters, then. You better not change the plot. I don't need any jumping Impala's, or dishes running away with spoons."_

Kurt hit send, his face red with laughter, and shut down his laptop, placing it on the desk next to his bed. Snuggling under the covers, he fell asleep easily, confident and satisfied with his life.


	11. Chapter 11

This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.

**Chapter Eleven**

Blaine woke up around 11 am Saturday morning. He rolled over in his bed, opened his eyes, and screamed. There, right in front of his eyes, were Jeff, Nick, Thad and Trent, leaning over his bed and staring intently at him.

"What the FUCK is wrong with you people?" Blaine asked loudly, drawing his blanket up to his chin.

"Today, you're coming with us," Jeff said. "And we wanted to make sure we got to you before that website sucked you in for the day."

Rolling his eyes, Blaine sat up. "You are insane, you know that right?" he said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"And that's why you love us so much," Nick answered, beaming.

Blaine shook his head slowly to himself as he kicked away his covers and got out of bed, ignoring his friends as he went into the bathroom. He pulled off the t-shirt he slept in so that the only thing he was wearing was his black boxer-briefs.

Stepping out of them, he slipped into the shower and turned it on, letting the cold water wash over him. He jumped and cursed and took a step back, out of the water's reach. He turned the knob and waited for the temperature to rise. Once it was warm enough, he stepped back under, once again letting it wash over him.

A warm shower never failed to make him feel better. So much that when he stepped back out, he had almost forgotten all about the four teenagers in his room. He opened the bathroom door; a towel wrapped tightly around his waist, and walked quickly over to his dresser, groaning as he saw that they hadn't left.

"Are you still here?" he asked, not looking at them but instead focusing on digging through his second drawer, the one that held the clothes he used when he wasn't at Dalton.

"We're not leaving, Blaine, so just get that cute little butt into some pants and let's go. Because today, you are not even touching your computer for at least eight hours."

Blaine disappeared back into the bathroom with his clothes, slamming the door shut behind him. When he returned a few minutes later he was dressed in a tight black shirt, red pants and to top it off, a striped bowtie around his throat. It was one of his favorites. His hair was slicked back as usual, the gel keeping his curls from peeking out.

"I guess there's no way for me to get out of this, is there?" The four boys shook their head, so synchronized it almost looked rehearsed. Blaine sighed heavily. "Fine, what are the plans?"

The looks on their faces as they looked at each other almost made Blaine regret that he hadn't fought harder.

20 minutes later, Blaine found himself at the mall, being dragged into store after store after store. He figured that if he had to be there, he might as well look for some stuff for his next cosplay. His last one had been for Halloween, when he had been the 11th doctor. He had recently changed his icon on Tumblr to one of the pictures from that night, having grown tired of his old one.

His next plan was to cosplay as Castiel, though he didn't know when he would have an opportunity to do so. Still, just having the costume was fun enough for him, which is how he ended up buying a trench coat from a thrift shop not far from the mall, ignoring the way his friends teased him for his obsession.

After the mall, they all sat down together at a restaurant to have dinner. And Blaine had to admit, he was having fun. He was kind of happy that his friends had dragged him out; even though he was still a bit creeped out that they had watched him sleep.

When he finally returned to the dorm room with Jeff, it was nearly 11 pm, and Blaine was exhausted. He got out his laptop and logged onto Tumblr, pleased to once again find two new messages in his inbox, one from Kurt and one from Sam.

"_I'm honored to have you as my beta. Two am? Wow, honey. That's one of the first rules I learned in fandom. Never write when tired. You'll get teased mercilessly for the rest of your life. Now, I need your email address. I can easily send you my chapters, then. You better not change the plot. I don't need any jumping Impala's, or dishes running away with spoons."_

"_Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, but my friends literally attacked me in bed this morning (I live at a boarding school and my roommate is one of the aforementioned friends, so I guess he let them in) and long story short I haven't been able to escape them before now._

"_Trust me; I've regretted it ever since, especially since my roommate read it too. At least I've sworn him to secrecy to keep anyone else from finding out. My email address is blaine-anderson hotmail . com. LOL, I promise not to change the plot, I'm sure it's amazing as it is!"_

Blaine hit send, already excited for Kurt's next message, and read the one from Sam.

"_Ive got another freind at school who likes spn too, im sure youd love him. Maybe you can meet him at sectionals or smthng?"_

"_I am totally open to meeting any and all spn fans you know! I can't wait! I just wish there were more people like you at my own school… Not that the people here aren't great, I just wish there were more fan boys here!"_

He hit send again and went back to his dashboard to resume his normal blogging. It didn't take long though, before his eyelids started to feel heavier and heavier, until he couldn't ignore it anymore and closed his laptop. He yawned loudly and stretched his arms.

He quickly changed into his big, stretched out t-shirt and sat down on his bed. Slipping underneath his covers felt amazing, and he was asleep in seconds. He couldn't wait to wake up on Sunday to see if he had any new messages.


	12. Chapter 12

**This chapter was written by me.**

**Chapter Twelve**

"There is a week to go until Sectionals and we _still _haven't decided on a set-list." Mercedes complained, wringing her hands with worry. "At this rate, we're not going to have anything arranged!"

Kurt nodded in agreement, playing with his food. He took a small bite of the chicken, feeling immediately sick afterwards. "I'm so nervous," he admitted, when Mercedes seemed impatient of waiting for his response. "I can't even eat."

"Can't eat?" Mercedes exclaimed. "Boo, you're that scared?"

Kurt glanced across the cafeteria, his stomach lurching. "Terrified, 'Cedes." He admitted. "I suffer from stage fright."

"I would never have guessed," Mercedes said in response. "Whoa, you hide it well."

Kurt blushed. "I don't like attention. Not the negative kind, at least."

Mercedes patted his hand reassuringly. "You'll be fine. We've done this before, remember? And, besides, 'swaying in the background' can be fun."

Kurt chuckled, feeling slightly less ill. "Thanks, 'Cedes."

Mercedes grinned at him. "No problem, boo."

* * *

Glee Club was an experience.

Finn and Puck were arguing over who was the better leader and who should lead Sectionals. Kurt coughed loudly as he was struck with an idea.

"Mr Schue, if I may?" he asked politely, standing up and heading to the center of the small room.

Finn and Puck begrudgingly moved away from the spotlight and sat down, glaring daggers at each other from opposite sides of the room.

"Now, I agree that Glee Club is a fun experience," Kurt began when the room had fallen completely silent. "And we are laidback and free. It is most certainly entertaining at all times."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sam nodding along vigorously to what he was saying.

"However, Sectionals is _less than a week away _and it has come to my attention that we don't have anything planned! I think we should use this time to decide on a set-list. We should get people to perform the songs they would like to do and whoever is the best – first and second – will get to perform that song at Sectionals."

Mr Schuester grimaced. "I thought you guys would want to do another Journey song."

"I think we've covered all of Journey," Finn responded. "Their songs are, like, hella cool, but I don't think there's any left we can do. I think performing something Kiss at Sectionals would be awesome."

Puck smirked and reached out a fist to Finn who smirked back and bumped it with his own.

"It's decided then!" Rachel announced, standing up and walking to the middle of the room. "We'll have two solo's or one solo and a duet. We'll do a Group Number for our third song. I was thinking 'Somebody To Love'? It's my favorite song and it would be a shame not to do such a challenging and impressive song for Sectionals."

"Great idea, Rachel," Mr Schuester said, writing Somebody To Love on the board. "I also liked the idea of one solo and one duet."

Rachel beamed, pleased. This way she would still perform and also allow the others a little spotlight. She headed over to Kurt and enveloped him in a hug. "Thank you," she whispered.

Kurt glanced at her in surprise. "I didn't do anything, Miss Berry."

"I'm on the path to stardom." Rachel responded, grinning. "I'm going to be a star, Kurt Hummel, and I know that you will be too."

Kurt blinked and patted her on the back awkwardly. "Um… Thank you?"

Rachel looked up at him, removed her arms and headed over to Finn with a massive smile on her face.

Kurt stood in shock, watching her leave. He looked over at Sam, who was watching him from where he sat. "I think I just became best friends with Rachel Berry."

Sam nodded back at him, and then gestured to him with his hand. "Come here, I've got something to show you."

"I can't look at anything now, Sam," Kurt responded. "My dad's got a hospital appointment and I need to make sure he gets there on time. I'm sure whatever it is can wait."

"But Kurt-"

"I'm really sorry, Sam." Kurt replied, checking his watch. "I need to make sure my father's still healthy."

Sam sighed as Kurt hurried out of the room, looking at his phone. He just wanted to show Kurt what the Dalton guy looked like. Sighing, Sam put his cell in his pocket, deciding that he could show Kurt some other time.

When Kurt finally got home that day after ensuring that his father went to his appointment, he was extremely exhausted.

With a yawn, he reached out for his laptop, putting it on his bed and logging onto Tumblr. He could barely keep his eyes open as he headed to his inbox, excited for his conversation with 'Bowtiedjensenfreak' and to see what the other boy had said in response to his last ask.

He blinked as he noticed a top message, from 'MeerkatSeb', someone he'd never really seen or heard of before. Frowning, he read the message. '_Your fics are utterly terrible. How you could write such abominations is beyond me. I don't understand why you're popular. You're not even hot. You've got a serious case of the Gay Face. No-one's going to want to fuck you. That's why you write this crap, isn't it? Because you're _lonely.'

Kurt felt his walls start to crumble as he read the hate with a blank face. He didn't understand how doing something he enjoyed made people hate him. At least this person was brave enough not to go on anon. Deciding to ignore it, though it lingered painfully in the corner of his mind, he scrolled down, searching for a friendly face.

He smiled as he found Blaine's icon, still in his Doctor Who cosplay. "I could be your companion anytime," he whispered, too tired to realize exactly how creepy he was being.

"_Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, but my friends literally attacked me in bed this morning (I live at a boarding school and my roommate is one of the aforementioned friends, so I guess he let them in) and long story short I haven't been able to escape them before now._

"_Trust me; I've regretted it ever since, especially since my roommate read it too. At least I've sworn him to secrecy to keep anyone else from finding out. My email address is blaine-anderson . LOL, I promise not to change the plot, I'm sure it's amazing as it is!"_

Blaine had sent the message as fan-mail so that the link he'd sent would easily copy. Kurt beamed at the thoughtfulness of the boy. If only every person on this site could be like Blaine, he thought to himself sadly.

'_That's fine. Great, actually. Thanks. Your roommate sounds like trouble. I wish I had a roommate. I wish I went to boarding school, come to think of it. Maybe then all the bullying would stop. I'm sorry, I'm tired, I'm not thinking as I type. Night.'_

Kurt hit the send button, waiting for the message to send. He shut down the laptop and placed it on the desk, instantly falling asleep when he fell back onto the covers.

It had been a long day.


	13. Chapter 13

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**Chapter Thirteen**

"Blaine, hey. Hey, Blaine, wake up. Blaaaaaine."

Blaine rolled over in his bed, trying to block out his roommate's voice and go back to sleep. He gave up about two seconds later though, when Jeff fell on top of him, knocking the air out of him. Gasping for air, Blaine struggled to turn around to face his roommate. "Jeff, what the fuck is wrong with you, I want to sleep!"

"But it's such a nice day, don't you want to come outside and play with me?"

Blaine twisted and turned until his hands were against Jeff's chest and pushed him off him. "No, Jeff, I want to sleep, and do you realize how wrong that sounds?"

Jeff shrugged up at him from his position on the floor where Blaine had pushed him. "But anyway, you should get up and start the day. It's almost 9 am already."

"Almost 9 am – Jeff, it's not almost 9 am, it's just 9 am, and that's too fucking early. I can sleep for at least two more hours before I have to get up."

"Damn, who'd have thought that Blaine ever-so-dapper Anderson would be such a grumpy face in the mornings?"

"You, my roommate, would," Blaine grumbled, wondering idly how long he'd have to press his face into his pillow before he passed out.

"Well, it's not like you're gonna go back to sleep now, so why don't you just get up?" Rolling his eyes and quietly plotting a way to get revenge on his roommate, Blaine rolled out of bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

Two minutes later he re-emerged, heading straight for his bed and burying himself under the covers. "No, no, no!" Jeff shouted, grabbing his hair. "Get up; you're not spending the entire day in here. You need to socialize –"

"I'm not spending the _entire_ day in here. Just, like, a few more hours, until it's plausible that some _normal_ human beings might be awake."

Jeff rolled his eyes at him, crossing his arms over his chest. "I am normal. You're the weird, nerdy one."

Blaine snorted. "Yeah, because there's nothing nerdy about staying up until 3 am playing _COD_." Jeff didn't reply, instead locking himself in the bathroom to sulk.

Blaine had no idea what he was doing, but he figured it meant Jeff had at least given up on getting him out of bed. Or maybe it just meant that he was plotting to ambush him and drag him kicking and screaming and clutching his laptop into the common room. It wouldn't be the first time.

Shaking his head slowly to himself, Blaine reached down beside his bed and picked up his laptop. He quickly checked facebook while tumblr loaded, snorting at the new posts in the Warbler group. When tumblr had finished loading he was pleased to find two messages waiting for him in his inbox.

"I'm going out," Jeff said, poking his head out of the bathroom door. Blaine nodded absentmindedly, too busy reading Kurt's message to really pay any attention to Jeff. "I'll be back for you in a few hours, because as a responsible roommate I will not let you spend all day inside this stuffy room."

And with that Jeff crossed the room in a few long strides and disappeared out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Blaine barely noticed.

'_That's fine. Great, actually. Thanks. Your roommate sounds like trouble. I wish I had a roommate. I wish I went to boarding school, come to think of it. Maybe then all the bullying would stop. I'm sorry, I'm tired, I'm not thinking as I type. Night.'_

Blaine bit his lip, unsure how he could answer the message from Kurt. Sure, he knew what Kurt was going through, but how much information was he really ready to give him about his personal life? Even though they'd never ever admit it in a million years, Blaine knew that when he'd told the Warblers the reasons he'd come to Dalton they hadn't seen him the same way.

But then again, Kurt had just opened up to him. And if Blaine was being perfectly honest, he knew that he trusted Kurt. He probably trusted him more than one should ever trust a random guy on the internet you've only talked to for about a week.

'_I'm sorry to hear that you're being bullied. I know how you feel, I really do. I was bullied through most of middle school and my sophomore year of high school, until… something… happened, that made me finally make the decision to switch schools. Please, Kurt, hang in there. Running from your problems doesn't solve anything. Trust me, I know, and I've had to live with that decision ever since.'_

Blaine re-read the message a few times before finally sending it. After that he only hesitated for about two seconds before opening ask and typing a quick 'Courage' in Kurt's ask box and hitting send.

Praying silently to some higher power, Blaine really hoped he hadn't crossed some kind of line. While he knew that a lot of people didn't like it when others meddled in their business and tried to tell them how to control their own lives he also figured that a bit of advice never hurt anyone. And besides, Kurt had been the one to bring it up in the first place.

Trying – and mostly failing – not to think about it anymore, Blaine reopened his inbox to read the message from Sam.

'_gr8! i told my frind bout u and he seems xcited bout it 2! cant wait! 2 bad it's still liek a week away'_

Blaine smiled to himself at the prospect of actually meeting not just one, but two other spn freaks in Ohio, and it really did take his mind of the whole Kurt thing.

'_Totally awesome! I can't wait to meet you guys! And can we just agree on having no hard feelings about whichever choir wins? I don't want something as petty as a glee club competition to ruin the fun of finally discussing spn with someone irl!'_

Having answered the only messages in his inbox, Blaine returned to his regular tumbler-ing. He stayed online, reblogging stuff for at least another hour until Jeff returned, demanding that he put on some clothes and join him and the other Warblers in the common room.


	14. Chapter 14

**This chapter was written by me.**

**Chapter Fourteen**

Kurt felt sick to his stomach.

He had woken up late, haphazardly put on some clothes and threw on a black vintage jacket on the top to hide his bad fashion choice. He'd spent ages looking for his dad's keys after missing the bus that he and Finn usually got, and had been half an hour late for his first lesson.

The rain droplets pelting against the window pane of the Spanish classroom didn't help to improve his already sour mood.

He swiveled his pen in his fingers, watching it with vague interest. Mercedes nudged him and the pen dropped with a clatter onto the floor. He turned to glare at her, but she simply pointed at Mr. Schuester. "The answer is '_enfermedad'_."

Mr. Schuester beamed. "I'm glad to see someone was paying attention. Right, Azimio, give me the Spanish translation for asthma."

Kurt sighed and rested his head on Mercedes' soft shoulder, earning a sympathetic pat from his best friend.

"Are you okay, baby?" she asked gently, stroking his back, a crease appearing on her forehead.

"I've just had a really bad day, that's all," he responded.

"You can come back to mine after Glee, if you like." Mercedes told him. "I've got some killer chocolate cookies that need eating, and I can't do it by myself!"

"You're my favorite," Kurt replied, grinning at Mercedes. "Your chocolate chip cookies are the best cookies I've ever tasted."

"Your ginger nuts are pretty damn delectable."

Kurt nodded. "True, that's very true. We'll have to make both and see who the cookie champion is."

"Bring it, Hummel."

"It's on, Jones."

The bell rang and Kurt leaned down to hug Mercedes. He kept forgetting how tall he had gotten over the summer holidays, and how lean after that horrible exercising and dieting. The results, he had to admit, were rather impressive.

Leaving the classroom, he headed towards his locker and pulled out his cellphone. He had a free period next lesson, so Kurt decided to have a look at Tumblr for a little while.

Removing his satchel from his locker, he headed to an empty classroom and sat down at the desk, placing his Geometry textbook on it neatly. He left a scatter of pens next to the book and smiled at his handiwork. If a pupil or teacher came in now, they would think he was only doing some homework.

Logging onto Tumblr, he laughed at a cute picture of Colin Morgan and Bradley James in a funny pose. With a quick reblog, he headed to his inbox, anxious to see if _bowtiedjensenfreak_ had replied to his despondent, tired message.

He paused as he read a nice message from another user, saying how he'd inspired the person to write fics in the first place, though for an entirely different fandom. Kurt felt his world get slightly brighter as he read that message, his smile lighting up his face. It was a slight beacon of happiness in the disheartening day he'd been having.

He grinned as Sam informed him that they were going to meet another Supernatural fan at Sectionals this weekend. For the first time, Kurt found himself wondering what the fan would be like. Would he be crazily obsessive and proud about it, like Sam himself? Would he be more reserved, more like Kurt, scared to let anyone know about his secret life where he could truly be himself? Or would he be different from both Sam and Kurt, a mix of the two? Kurt was eager to find out.

Kurt paused as the door handle bent, signifying the entrance of someone. A sophomore peered into the room, saw Kurt, squeaked and disappeared. Kurt breathed out a gentle sigh of relief. He really didn't want to speak to anyone at this current moment in time.

His mood instantly improved as he spotted a message from his new best friend. His icon was becoming familiar to Kurt, and he was slightly worried by his own weird infatuation to the Tumblr user.

He sobered up slightly as he remembered the terrible message he'd last sent to Blaine. He wondered if Blaine had come back to say that he was pathetic, and should learn to toughen up because he still had it easier than lots of other people in the world.

Kurt forced himself to read the message, reassuring himself that Blaine wouldn't have said anything hurtful. Blaine was nice, a sweetheart. Kurt was a friend. Friends didn't hurt each other intentionally.

"_I'm sorry to hear that you're being bullied. I know how you feel, I really do. I was bullied through most of middle school and my sophomore year of high school, until… something… happened, that made me finally make the decision to switch schools. Please, Kurt, hang in there. Running from your problems doesn't solve anything. Trust me, I know, and I've had to live with that decision ever since."_

Kurt frowned, sad that Blaine had had a hard time in his school. Who would want to bully such a nice person? Kurt understood the bullying targeted at him. He could be mean and, in all honesty, he wasn't very likeable. But Blaine? He seemed sweet. He seemed like a person who wouldn't harm anyone, even if damage had been done to him.

Kurt felt his emotions overpower him and typed quickly, saying everything he wanted to say in a character limited message.

"_Bullies are idiots. I'm so sorry, Blaine, you didn't deserve that. No one does. But I can't afford to transfer schools. I can't leave. I'm stuck here. For the rest of my school life. It's sad, but it's true. Why shouldn't I run from my problems when it seems to be the only solution? I'm not special, Blaine. I'm nobody. I only have one option and I'm coping. Just."_

He hit send, and felt a tear fall down his cheek. "Hanging on by a thread," he whispered and wrote a note down in his Geometry book. "The Kurt Hummel story."

He shook his head and glanced at his inbox again, noticing a little one-worded message from Blaine himself.

"_Courage" _it simply stated, and Kurt closed his eyes, allowing himself to take a few deep breaths and attempt to feel courageous.

"I'm brave," he whispered to himself ferociously. "I'm strong."

Walking out, he held his cell tightly in his hands, looking at the screen with an invigorated sense of satisfaction and revelation.

A quick slam was all it took for him to fall to the floor, his phone dropping slowly from his hands. Kurt glared as he looked up at David Karofsky, who gave him a lopsided smirk.

Kurt picked up his cracked cell and re-read the message Blaine had sent him. "Hey!" he shouted, beginning to run after Karofsky. "I am talking to you!"

Karofsky was walking into the locker room. Kurt inhaled and, with all the courage he could muster, followed in after him.

"Girls' locker room is next door." Karofsky replied, avoiding Kurt's eyes.

Kurt grimaced, annoyed that Karofsky didn't have the strength to face him. "What is your problem?"

Karofsky turned around, annoyed. "Excuse me?"

"What are you so scared of?" Kurt asked, desperately wanting to know why the bully was so focused on targeting him.

"Besides you sneaking in here to peek at my junk?"

"Oh, yeah, every straight guy's nightmare that all of us gays are secretly out to molest and convert you. Well, guess what, ham hock? You're not my type."

Karofsky leaned closer, his face red with anger. "That right?"

"Yeah," Kurt responded, his voice confident. He was proud of himself for not wavering as he spoke. "I don't dig on chubby boys who sweat too much and are going to be bald by the time they're thirty."

Dave's voice was short, almost monotone, as he glared at Kurt. "Do not push me, Hummel."

"You going to hit me?" Kurt asked, glancing up at Karofsky with hatred. "Do it."

"Don't push me!"

"Hit me," Kurt interrupted. "'cause it's not going to change who I am. You can't punch the gay out of me anymore than I can punch the ignoramus out of you!"

"I said get out of my face!" Karofsky shouted, inches away from Kurt.

Kurt braced himself for the blow that he knew would eventually come. "You are nothing but a scared little boy who can't handle how extraordinarily ordinary you are!"

Dave Karofsky leaned forward and kissed Kurt full on the mouth.

Kurt couldn't move, too horrified at what was currently happening. He forced himself to move, terrified of what Karofsky would try to do if he didn't. He backed away as Karofsky leaned in for another kiss, shaking his head in terror and bringing a hand to his mouth in shock.

Karofsky let out a frantic noise of dejection and left the locker room, leaving Kurt to stand there in confusion and terror.

His day had gotten implausibly terrifying.


	15. Chapter 15

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**Chapter Fifteen**

The first thing Blaine did when he returned from his Monday classes was to pick up his laptop and log onto Tumblr, where he was pleased to find not two, but four messages in his inbox. The first one was from Sam.

'_ofc! spn bfore glee club lol!'_

Blaine smiled faintly at that and wrote a quick reply; _'Yeah, haha, awesome!'_

The two next messages were from anons, and from the look of it, the same one.

'_Wow, I really liked your last fic. It was hilarious,"_

'_Oh, and your 11 cosplay is awesome btw. You look adorable!'_

Blaine blushed faintly at the compliments. He didn't get anons often and especially not ones that commented on how he looked.

'_Thank you so much!_' he answered the first one and hit publish. '_Thanks! Cosplaying 11 was a ton of fun!_' he wrote on the second message, publishing it without thinking more about the comment on his appearance.

The last message was from Kurt.

"_Bullies are idiots. I'm so sorry, Blaine, you didn't deserve that. No one does. But I can't afford to transfer schools. I can't leave. I'm stuck here. For the rest of my school life. It's sad, but it's true. Why shouldn't I run from my problems when it seems to be the only solution? I'm not special, Blaine. I'm nobody. I only have one option and I'm coping. Just."_

Blaine smiled sadly as he read Kurt's message. On one side, it was nice to have someone who understood him, but at the same time, no one deserved to know what that felt like. When even getting out of bed in the morning was a struggle. When you were constantly watching your back. When everything was happening all at once but no one seemed to notice.

'_Kurt, please don't say that. You're special. You're talented and smart and beautiful and caring and perfect. There are always options, even if you can't always see them. Trust me, Kurt, things do get better.'_

He hit send without really thinking about it, which in hindsight he probably should have. He'd just called Kurt beautiful. He'd just called his all-time favorite fic writer beautiful. While giving him tips on how to deal with bullies. Well. That definitely didn't happen every day.

Pulling his books out from his bag he decided to try and multitask homework and Tumblr for a while before he had to get to Warblers practice. It didn't work out very well, and he ended up having to run through the hall to make it on time, books lying forgotten on his normally so tidy bed.

When he arrived at the meeting he was surprised to find that he wasn't actually that late. Apparently he had run from his dorm to the common room in under two minutes. That would explain why he was so out of breath.

Settling down next to a curious looking Jeff he patiently waited for the rest of the Warblers to join them. "Just on time, as usual," Jeff muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Shut up, I was busy," Blaine said, and elbowed his roommate lightly in the stomach. Blaine didn't actually see his face, but he was ninety nine percent sure that Jeff rolled his eyes at him.

"Sure you were. _Busy_."

"Jerk."

Blaine was sure Jeff wanted to reply, but just then Wes banged his gavel sharply, getting their attention. "Last week of rehearsals before Sectionals, guys. You better bring your a-game, every single one of you," Wes said, waving his gavel threateningly. "Let's get started then. Everybody up and in positions."

The next hour passed in a blur of choreography, singing, harmonizing and a few gavel-related injuries, thankfully not for Blaine, before they all headed off, either for dinner or, for the few people who drove home every night, for the parking lot.

Blaine found himself at a table with Jeff, Wes and David, discussing Sectionals. "Relax, Wes, we've been rehearsing like crazy for months, there's no way we're gonna lose this," Jeff said with an eye roll.

Wes glared at him. "We can't afford to assume anything, Sterling, but yes, I'd like to think that we're fairly good prepared. I'm not really worried about beating the Hipsters; they seem harmless, really, but the New Directions might be a bigger problem. Even though they lost Regionals last year, we can't underestimate them."

Blaine picked absentmindedly at his food, not saying anything. He was thinking about his friend Sam, and his other spn friend who was in the New Directions. He and Sam hadn't talked about Sectionals at all, and Blaine had never seen them perform anything. Could they really be that good? Blaine found that, surprisingly, he didn't care. He was just ecstatic that he was meeting someone else who shared his crazy obsession.

And with this in mind, he went back to his dorm room with Jeff and finished his homework, before taking a quick shower and changing into his pajamas. As he returned to his bed and picked up his laptop again, he found himself thinking back to the message he'd sent Kurt.

He really hoped he hadn't been overstepping. They hadn't really been talking to each other for that long after all. But at the same time, Blaine felt at ease while talking to Kurt. As if simply seeing that user-name on his screen could pause everything, if just for a few minutes. As if Kurt could give him a break from everything else going on in his life. Every test, every paper, every hour of rehearsal and every lonely night revisiting the memories from last year. Kurt somehow made all that go away, just by talking to him.

That thought fresh in his mind, Blaine put his laptop down by his bed, muttered as goodnight to Jeff, and fell asleep with a smile on his face.


	16. Chapter 16

**This chapter was written by me.**

**Chapter Sixteen**

"I have an idea for Sectionals, Mr. Schue," Sam muttered casually, guitar slung over his shoulders.

"Yes?" Mr. Schuester responded, flicking through his notes. "What's your idea?"

"I was thinking… we could sing '_Carry On Wayward Son'_."

"'_Carry On My Wayward Son' _is what you mean to say," he corrected.

"No," Sam said. "See, that's a common error. The title omits the 'my'. It would be an awesome group closing number, though, right?"

"It would be interesting, for lack of a better word," Mr. Schue replied. "I think we should stick with a song that showcases the pure vocal talent of New Directions."

Sam sighed and nodded, an unsatisfied smile plastered on his face.

"Hey," Mr. Schue murmured, noticing the displeasure Sam displayed. "Sectionals is going to be a piece of cake."

Sam grinned, and headed to the choir room, Mr. Schue following closely behind him.

"Right!" He announced to the members, making them quieten down quickly. He grabbed his blackboard marker and wrote 'SECTIONALS' on the board in capital letters.

"Yes!" Rachel whispered ecstatically. "Mr. Schue, I was thinking Finn and I could open with the wonderful ballad of-"

"Actually, Rachel," Mr. Schuester interrupted. "I was thinking the winners of our duet competition could lead for this one."

"You'd _jeopardize _our chance at winning Sectionals?" Rachel exclaimed in horror. "No, Finn and I must perform. We're the best performers."

"I don't mind not singing," Finn announced. "I find focusing on the dance moves kind of difficult. Quinn and Sam were pretty cool at performing."

"Yes, give them a chance." Mike spoke up from where he was sat next to Tina.

"I agree." Kurt announced. "Rachel, while you are undoubtedly a star, if we show your vocal power off immediately we won't have anything to help us win Nationals. Quinn and Sam can perform a sweet duet."

Rachel opened and closed her mouth a few times, considering how best to respond. "I'm not entirely sure…" she finally uttered.

"Shut it, Berry," Santana said, rolling her eyes with irritation. "Quinn and Sam should take a duet. Lady Hummel over there should perform something and then a kickass group number featuring me, Asian Number One and Aretha."

"I was thinking of Sam and Quinn performing a duet of their choice," Mr. Schue announced, finally getting enough strength to speak up and voice his original idea. "Then, Santana, I think you should have a solo where Mike and Brittany can organize an amazing dance routine. Featuring the dancers will get us an almost definite spot to Nationals. Finishing with a group number with Mercedes and Tina on lead vocals."

"Loving the idea, Mr. Schue," Artie said in approval. "But the dance routine sounds kind of hard."

"I'll make sure to make a routine that goes well with a wheelchair," Mike reassured him. "Britt and I can be the main focus of the routine while Santana sings. It will be amazing."

"Sounds it," Artie agreed, amazed.

"This is going to be amazing, boo," Mercedes whispered to Kurt, eyes gleaming with excitement.

"I think so too," Tina said quietly, pleased that she'd been given a part in Sectionals for the first time. It felt nice to be included.

"So, that's sorted," Mr. Schuester said. "You guys have to get this all sorted out by tomorrow. Quinn and Sam, decide on a duet quickly and, before you ask, it _cannot _be '_Carry On My Wayward Son'_-"

"-_Carry On Wayward Son'_," Sam interrupted.

"I was thinking more of a classical duet, one that's well-known to keep the audience involved."

"We could do _(I've Had) The Time of my Life'_." Quinn decided, grinning at Sam. "It's a wonderful duet, and I think Sam and I could do it justice."

Mr. Schuester nodded. "Yes, that's a brilliant song choice, Quinn. Are you okay with that, Sam?"

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner," Sam responded, earning a high five from Mike.

"It's a good film," Mike defended himself, earning a short laugh from Tina who leaned on his shoulder affectionately.

"Santana, I was thinking you could do '_Valerie_' by the Zutons." Mr. Schuester said.

"I can do that," she replied confidently, linking her pinky finger with Brittany's. "We're going to own this competition."

Brittany nodded. "Of course."

Puck frowned. "Does that have a major dance number?"

"Yes." Mr. Schue responded. "Everyone is going to be involved, Noah."

Lauren frowned. "I don't _do _dancing."

"C'mon, just this once," Puck begged, looking up at her with pleading eyes.

"You owe me five boxes of chocolates for this," Lauren told him.

"I'll get you anything you want."

Lauren grinned.

"Okay, you guys can choose a group number. I expect you to have chosen by tomorrow." Mr. Schue announced.

The Glee club members nodded, stood up and started to leave the room.

"Hey! Kurt!" Sam called, forcing the other boy to slow down and stay in the choir room. "I need to talk to you."

Mercedes looked between Kurt and Sam with confusion. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing, Mercedes," Kurt responded. "You go ahead, I can't go on a shopping spree with you today anyway."

"If you're sure, boo." Mercedes said, her forehead creased.

"'Cedes, it's only Sam." Kurt reassured her. "He's just got to ask me something. I'll be fine."

Mercedes nodded and exited the room, Sam watching her in awe.

"What?" Kurt asked, confused at his expression.

"Has she always been that pretty?"

Kurt grinned. "'Cedes is beautiful. I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees that."

"Yeah," Sam said, "she's so caring as well. Wow."

"Sam," Kurt said, "you're dating Quinn."

Sam bit his lip. "Am I not allowed to appreciate the beauty in others?"

"As long as you don't end up hurting someone, go ahead. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Right, so, we're going to meet my Tumblr friend at Sectionals ten minutes before the competition. He's going to wear something distinct so we can recognize him."

"I'm both excited and terrified to meet him," Kurt responded. "I've got to go home now, but thanks for telling me."

"No problem, dude." Sam grinned. "This weekend's going to be incredible."

"Yeah," Kurt agreed. "Yeah, it will be."

He left the room, picking up his cell to check his Tumblr inbox. To his surprise, only three messages had been sent to his inbox. That was probably a sign telling him to get a move on and upload a new fic for his many followers.

"_I'm desperate for a new fic! Please!"_

"I'm working on something right now." He replied, publishing it for all his followers to see.

"_Your Destiel is fucking incredible. Have you ever considered writing pure smut?"_

"There's always a balance of smut and plot in my fics. I find it grasps the audience. Who can resist smut with a good plot, after all? Or even smut with a bad plot?"

Finally, he found Blaine's message. He braced himself for whatever Blaine had said in response to his rather teary eyed ask.

'_Kurt, please don't say that. You're special. You're talented and smart and beautiful and caring and perfect. There are always options, even if you can't always see them. Trust me, Kurt, things do get better.'_

Kurt didn't know what to say.

The word 'beautiful' stood out, bolded and emblazoned in his brain.

He'd never been called beautiful before. It was reveling, wonderful and he felt invincible.

"_You're the best friend I could ever ask for. Also, I'm really, really sorry I haven't been on for a few days, but I got a really bad cold and I couldn't go online… "_

He hit send and fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Beautiful.

He, Kurt Hummel, was beautiful.


	17. Chapter 17

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**Chapter 17**

When Blaine got back from classes on Tuesday he was excited to see if Kurt had answered him. Unfortunately, he hadn't. Trying not to feel too disappointed, Blaine went back to his dashboard, reblogging a few Destiel photosets before closing his laptop and turning to his homework.

The next day went the same way. He got up, ate breakfast, went to class, got back to his room, answered a message from Sam telling him what he would be wearing (he described his Dalton uniform and told him to look out for the black curls) and when they would be meeting, reblogged stuff for a while, did his homework, went to last minute Warbler practice and went to bed.

The lack of any messages from Kurt was starting to worry him though. Had he gone too far? He knew he shouldn't have called him beautiful. Kurt probably thought he was some crazy creeper 50 year old or something.

Blaine opened a new tab and wrote the first few letters of Kurt's URL, pressing enter when it popped up almost at once. From what he could see, Kurt hadn't reblogged anything since Tuesday morning. Which meant he wasn't just ignoring Blaine, he wasn't there at all. Hopefully.

Or maybe it just meant that Kurt was so freaked out by Blaine's message that he avoided going on Tumblr altogether. Blaine bit his lip. Or maybe something else had happened. What if he was hurt? What if Kurt had gotten hit by a car and was in a coma? Blaine shook his head, trying to rid himself of the thoughts.

He knew he was being paranoid and that Kurt most likely was just sick or busy or something else really normal and that he might not even have seen his message yet, but he couldn't exactly help it either. He had always been a worrier.

Thursday night, when he got back from hanging out in the common room with some of the guys, he opened Tumblr, pleased to see a new message. Assuming it was from Sam he opened it, yelping loudly when he saw that it wasn't. It was from Kurt. He had finally answered his message.

_"You're the best friend I could ever ask for. Also, I'm really, really sorry I haven't been on for a few days, but I got a really bad cold and I couldn't go online… "_

Blaine stared at the message in his inbox, feeling as if he could finally breathe again. "What's up," Jeff asked, emerging from the bathroom.

"I – nothing," Blaine said, blushing as he read the message again. _"You're the best friend I could ever ask for."_

"Okay," Jeff said, plopping down on the other end of Blaine's bed. "Spill it." Blaine swallowed. "I – it's nothing, really… Just – Kurt – this guy I'm talking to on Tumblr, you know, finally answered my message after two days of not being on. It's not a big deal, I was just surprised."

Jeff frowned. "Kurt? Is that the Tumblr "famous" guy you were talking about? The one with the fanfiction?" Blaine nodded. "Alright," Jeff muttered. "So, what did he say?"

"Um," Blaine said, looking down at his lap with a goofy grin on his face. "It's kind of personal," he said, looking up at Jeff to see his expression. He rolled his eyes and slid off Blaine's bed and onto the floor. "Fine, don't tell me. Enjoy talking to your little internet boyfriend. I'm going to bed."

Blaine rolled his eyes, not bothering to correct him. It wasn't worth it.

Instead, he started typing out an answer to Kurt's message.

"_That's quite alright. I hope you're feeling better now though… And before you ask, no I have not been freaking out for days because you weren't answering my message. And I certainly wasn't scared that you thought I was a creepy old man or that you'd been hit by a car and was in a coma or anything . Heh…"_

He sent the message, hoping it would make Kurt laugh, and not make him seem overly desperate and insane. Thinking once more about what Kurt had actually said he decided to send him one more message.

"_And just so you know, you're the best friend I could ask for too."_

Satisfied with his answer, Blaine shut his laptop and wrapped himself into the blankets on his bed and falling asleep in seconds, feeling as if a huge load had been lifted off his shoulders.

Friday went similarly as the rest of the week had gone, with the exception of the worry Blaine had been feeling for Kurt.

He got a message from Trent in the middle of English. "Wanna go out with us tonight? We're gonna check out this Italian restaurant in Lima. It's supposed to be pretty good." Blaine replied with a quick "Sure, when and where?" and pocketed his phone before his teacher saw it.

A few hours later he was squeezed into the backseat of Wes' car between Trent and Jeff, David in the front seat. After about an hour and a half of driving Wes pulled into the parking lot at Breadstix and Blaine was very happy to get out of the car. "I am not sitting there again when we go back to Dalton," he grumbled and Jeff laughed. "Of course you are, Blaine, you're the smallest one, no one else fits in the middle."

Ten minutes later they were seated at their table, looking through their menus in silence. Once Blaine had decided what to get he put down his menu and stared around for a bit. A small group of people caught his attention from the other side of the room.

They were four people, to boys and two girls. One of the girls, a short one with brown hair and wearing a sweater with some sort of animal on it was saying something very loudly. "I still can't believe Mr. Schuester chose Quinn and Sam to sing a duet instead of me and Finn," she all but shouted, grabbing the hand of the enormous boy sitting with his back to them.

The boy sitting next to the loud girl rolled his eyes, hand going up to run through his light brown hair. He muttered something, but since he was talking at a much more normal volume, Blaine couldn't make out his words. There was something familiar about the boy though, despite the fact that Blaine was almost certain that he had never met him before.

He frowned, but looked away when their waiter came to take their orders. He stole another quick glance at the boy as they waited for their food, but was quickly sucked into the conversation. It wasn't until they were in the car on their way back to Dalton, when Blaine was once again stuck between Jeff and Trent that he realized who he had looked like. The boy at the restaurant had looked like Kurt.


	18. Chapter 18

**This chapter was written by me.**

**Chapter Eighteen**

"Rachel, I do _not _want to go to Breadstix with just you and Finn for company." Kurt complained, as Rachel tugged on his sleeve with impatience.

"Please, Kurt?" Rachel asked, invading Kurt's personal space so that he had nowhere to turn. "We're good friends, now, and Finn's your step-brother. It can't possibly be that bad."

Kurt felt a sly grin creep on to his face at his best friends insistence. "Okay. I guess I can get on board with a 'family outing' of sorts. Although… One condition."

Rachel paused, staring at him and waiting for him to continue, worried at what his rule might be.

"Don't look so alarmed, Miss Berry. I'm not going to ask you to give me all your solo's in Glee Club. Although, that would be nice." Kurt mused, enjoying the torment he was putting the small girl through. "I'm going to invite Mercedes. I haven't spoken to her for quite some time. I'll have someone to talk to when you and Finn are being nauseating."

"Nauseating!" Rachel exclaimed. "I think the term you're looking for is _romantic_."

"No. Nauseating is definitely the right term." Kurt declared. "I'll see you later. I've got to text Mercedes."

Rachel nodded in response, and scattered off happily to find Finn and tell him that his brother had agreed to their oddly sweet proposal.

Kurt removed his phone from his pocket and skimmed his contacts. Finding Mercedes at the very top of the list, he quickly entered a quick message asking for her to save him from the inevitable disaster. A few minutes later, the vibration of his cell informed him that she had replied. He grinned as he read the affirmative answer, and closed his eyes for a few seconds, feeling happier than he had in months.

Feeling ecstatic and full of enthusiasm, Kurt opened up his laptop after ensuring his door was locked so Rachel couldn't come barging in again and find him on his secret account. Firstly, he opened Microsoft Word and began to write, his emotions pouring out like magic onto the page. A mixture of sadness, happiness and plain weirdness figuratively escaped his mind and formed the words he was typing on the screen.

Finally, with a quiver of excitement, Kurt typed the two words he had been eager to type since he had started this fic, so many months ago.

'THE END'

Typing those two simple words made Kurt feel accomplished and thoroughly excited. All he needed to do now was let Blaine read through and beta it for him, checking everything he had done and improving it all the more.

Kurt grinned as he remembered the boy. _Blaine._ His internet friend. No, Kurt decided. Blaine was his friend, plain and simple.

He logged on to Tumblr and wrote a quick message to his thousands of followers.

'_Phew,' _he wrote carefully. '_My next fic will be up some time this week. I personally think this is my best one. Beta-d by the lovely, kind, adorable and gorgeous Blaine, cordially known as 'bowtiedjensenfreak'.'_

Kurt was struck by a sudden string of notifications, due to the many people he followed and who followed him in return liking and reblogging his post. One particularly motivated follower of his had typed out an excited response of '_ohmigod, my two favorite authors working together, I can't believe this, it's a miracle, praise jesus'._

Kurt laughed, and clicked on his inbox, searching for one familiar user-name in particular. He smiled as he found Blaine's also increasingly recognizable icon and found himself pause as he once again took in the beauty of the boy he was currently friends with. How could it be, Kurt asked himself, that someone as lovely as Blaine himself could be so beautiful and talented.

Shaking his head of the thought, he quickly read Blaine's message, suddenly conscious of time. He was going to Breadstix at seven, after all.

"_That's quite alright. I hope you're feeling better now though… And before you ask, no I have not been freaking out for days because you weren't answering my message. And I certainly wasn't scared that you thought I was a creepy old man or that you'd been hit by a car and were in a coma or anything . Heh…"_

Kurt couldn't help but chuckle at Blaine's awkward response. Blaine had been worried about him. Kurt found it rather sweet, in fact. He wasn't used to anyone apart from his father being concerned about him. Truthfully, it was mainly due to the fact that Kurt didn't like to show any form of weakness.

"_And just so you know, you're the best friend I could ask for too."_

Kurt felt a swell of emotion run through his heart. A warm, pleasurable feeling enveloped him, causing him to be immersed in this pleasurable emotion. Kurt didn't know what to say. He hadn't felt happiness like this since the Glee Club's last win in part of a competition.

"_Blaine… I'm so happy. I don't even know why. Today's just been… the most perfect day. Maybe it's because I finished our fic. I must be relieved to have it over with. Will you please beta it for me? You'll be the first one to read it."_

Kurt smiled, and stood up quickly as he heard a knock on the door, signaling Mercedes' arrival. With a quick grin, Kurt ran a comb over his hair, ensuring that it was perfect and threw on his outfit which he'd decided on early that morning. He'd decided against a hat seeing as he would be inside for most of the time during their outing.

"Kurt! Hurry up, boo." Mercedes shouted. "I don't want to be left on my own with Rachel and Finn. I'd feel like a third wheel. At least with you, I can be a fourth wheel instead."

"Ha, ha, 'Cedes, very funny." Kurt responded, shutting down his laptop and exiting his bedroom. Mercedes immediately engulfed him in a loving hug, which Kurt readily returned. "Great to see you. Sorry I haven't been around much."

Mercedes sighed, and shook her head. "I've been distant too. I missed you."

Kurt frowned as he took in her words. "I missed you too, 'Cedes. I really did."

"I know, I know." Mercedes said. "C'mon, I want to go get my Breadstix."

Kurt chuckled and took her by the arm. "Of course. Rachel! Finn! We're taking my car!"

"Aw, but dude!" Finn complained. "I wanna drive."

"You almost killed a mailman." Rachel said, earning a snort from Mercedes. "I think Kurt should drive."

"Thank you." Kurt said, taking the keys from Finn and unlocking the car. Mercedes piled into the front seat, leaving a disgruntled Rachel and annoyed Finn to jump into the back seats.

They arrived at Breadstix at exactly seven o'clock. Kurt sat down in one of the booths, where Rachel quickly sat next to him, leaving Mercedes to sit directly opposite him.

"This almost feels like a double date," he joked to Mercedes.

"Yep. My fabulousness just drew you to me." Mercedes said in response.

"Definitely."

Kurt barely took notice of the boys who walked in a few minutes later. His eyes flickered over the leader, a beach blonde boy who reminded him a little of Sam, but was distracted by Rachel's constant movement while she complained.

"Shh," Kurt told her eventually. "You'll have a chance to sing a solo at Regionals."

"If we even get to Regionals!" Rachel exclaimed. "I'm sorry, but Quinn and Sam? Their voices are weak in comparison to Finn's and mine."

"I agree with Mr Schue on this one," Mercedes informed Rachel. "It's nice to be allowed the limelight for once."

"Mercedes is a great singer!" Finn said, enthused. He didn't see the massive glare Rachel gave in his direction.

After a few moments of silence, Rachel finally consented. "Okay, Mercedes, Tina and Santana should see us through. They're amazing singers. But so are _you_, Kurt! Mr Schue should have offered you a bit in the group number, at least!"

"I admit I'm talented," Kurt agreed, "and I would love a solo at Sectionals. Clearly my voice is too feminine for Mr Schuester."

"No, dude," Finn said. "He just likes having strong, male leads to compliment the girls voices."

"Actually, you'll find that Rachel's voice compliments mine perfectly."

"Mine fits his voice too," Mercedes admitted. "I like singing duets with Kurt. He's my boy."

Kurt smiled at her and gave her a quick hug. "Love you too, 'Cedes."

They ate the rest of their meal in content, and Kurt returned home with a smile on his face.


	19. Chapter 19

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose.**

**Chapter Nineteen**

When Blaine got back from Breadstix, he was still thinking about the gorgeous boy from the other side of the room, and how much he really did look like Kurt. But that was impossible. Kurt didn't live here, he would have known if he did.

Shaking his head to get rid of the silly thoughts, Blaine got out his laptop and went to check Tumblr and Facebook. He had a few messages on Facebook, which he answered quickly without really thinking about it. The one message he had on Tumblr was much more special to him though.

"_Blaine… I'm so happy. I don't even know why. Today's just been… the most perfect day. Maybe it's because I finished our fic. I must be relieved to have it over with. Will you please beta it for me? You'll be the first one to read it."_

Blaine grinned to himself, giddy with the thought that he was going to be the first one to read Kurt's new fic. He couldn't believe that the author he had admired from afar for so long had now become one of his absolutely best friends. And they hadn't even been talking for that long.

Kurt seemed to understand him in ways that not even his closest friends did, and he couldn't help but hope that one day they could meet in real life. If only so Blaine could see that Kurt was real. That he wasn't just a figment of his imagination. Because if Kurt wasn't real… Then Blaine had no idea what was. He had no idea how to go on if someone as amazing as Kurt ceased to exist.

Blaine knew he should be focusing on Sectionals. The competition was, after all, the next morning, but he couldn't help but think about the possibility of him and Kurt ever getting to know each other in real life. And maybe, if the fates would have it, their friendship could progress to something more.

Blaine might have fooled around a bit and kissed a few boys at parties whenever the Warblers felt up to experimenting. They were all too drunk to remember much the next day anyway, so it never really mattered, but Blaine had never been anyone's boyfriend. He had never gotten the chance to go on dates and hold hands and cuddle while watching movies.

The last time he had held someone's hand, he had ended up in the hospital for it. Blaine shuddered violently, not wanting to remind himself of what had happened that night, with George. He had moved past it, and George's parents had moved out of town. He had put it behind him, and moved on.

He took a shuddering breath, and closed his laptop, figuring he needed as much sleep as he could get before the big day, especially when Wes was waking them all up for a 6 am last minute practice. He quickly got changed into his pajamas, and pulled back the covers to get under them.

He sighed once he was safe in bed, trying to steer his mind onto a safer topic than Sadie Hawkins. The last thing he needed was to have a panic attack the night before his big competition. He was sure Wes would just love that last little bump in the road just a few hours before they were set to go on stage.

So, to escape his mind for a few seconds, he did what he always did. He closed his eyes tightly, breathed slowly in through his nose, imagining that the air flowed through his nose, tickling down his spine, past his butt before taking a turn, going up through his stomach, past his spine and out through his mouth. He repeated, just as his boxing coach had told him to do, and at once felt a lot more relaxed than he had just a minute ago.

He could do this. He could go up on that stage, and win Sectionals for the Warblers. He wouldn't let them down. And he would not let his past define who he was today, because those were two wildly different people. Blaine had grown from his experiences, and while he certainly wouldn't wish them on anyone else, he didn't regret them.

If he hadn't come out and asked George to Sadie Hawkins, and if they hadn't gotten the shit kicked out of them, he wouldn't have transferred to Dalton. He wouldn't have met Jeff, or Wes or David or Nick, and he wouldn't have the Warblers.

If it wasn't for them, he would probably be the same shy, jumpy kid he had been when he'd first started. He might seem like he has full control over his life right now, but when he got to Dalton, he'd been a complete mess.

It had been the fall after the attack, and he had spent his summer mostly alone in his room, not talking to anyone but his parents and his psychiatrist. His mom had gently suggested that maybe they wait a bit longer but Blaine had insisted that he start school that fall.

The first day of school he'd been a mess. He hadn't talked to anyone, not even to ask for directions because he had absolutely no idea where he was going. Some of the students around him had given him curious looks, but none of them were hateful like Blaine had originally expected. He had heard the words 'zero tolerance bullying policy' and thought it had to be too good to be true. But no, no one shoved him into lockers or hissed hateful slurs into his ears as they walked by. Some of them even smiled to him, which made Blaine very unnerved.

He had just stumbled late into his French class, and given the teacher his note when he was told to go sit at the only free desk in the room, next to a blonde boy who smiled kindly at him. He had met Jeff, and though Blaine hadn't said much beside his name to him Jeff didn't prod for more information, like he was sure he wanted to.

They had been friends ever since, and Blaine had slowly but surely grown out of his insecure little shell until he finally got up the courage to try out for the Warblers, like Jeff kept suggesting for him.

Blaine rolled over in bed to stare fondly at his sleeping friend. He hadn't exactly told him, but Blaine was eternally grateful for what Jeff had done for him that day. He rolled back onto his back with a smile, and closed his eyes, sleep coming quickly this time.


	20. Chapter 20

**This chapter was written by me and was my second most favourite chapter to write. **

**Chapter Twenty**

Kurt groaned as he felt a hand press firmly on his shoulder. "I'm sleeping!" he muttered softly.

"Dude," Finn said hesitantly, eyeing Rachel who was observing the scene with a raised eyebrow. "You have to wake up! It's Sectionals!"

"Sectionals?" Kurt asked, suddenly alarmed. Quickly he shot up, his pajamas wrinkled from the restless sleep he'd had. He looked at his bedside clock. "And you didn't wake me up _earlier_?"

"Rachel said you'd wake up." Finn said, as if it was all that simple. "She said you'd be up at the crack of dawn."

"My alarm didn't go off," he murmured, slapping a hand to his forehead. "Thanks for waking me up, anyway."

"Get changed, Kurt," Rachel said, looking sharp and awake. Kurt almost felt envious of her natural perkiness. "We'll be waiting outside. The coach will be here in quarter of an hour!"

Kurt flopped his head back on his pillow, irritated at himself for oversleeping. It was typical of him to spoil everything. He closed his eyes for a second as Finn and Rachel left his bedroom and then forced himself out of bed.

He picked up the outfit Carole had told him to leave out the night before and placed it on as quickly and neatly as he was able. The simple red polo shirt and neat black jeans complemented his skin tone nicely, and Kurt was actually pretty satisfied with the casual but formal competition wear that Mr. Schuester had decided on this year.

"Kurt!" He heard Rachel shout and, quickly styling his hair with a can of hairspray and his fingers, ran down the stairs, smiling as he noticed Rachel and Finn just walking out the door.

Rushing after them, he made it into the bus, smiling at Mercedes. She delicately patted her hand on the bus seat beside her. Kurt breathed a sigh of relief and hurried over to her, Finn and Rachel sitting in the two empty spaces behind them.

"Are you ready, boo?" Mercedes asked, genuine enthusiasm on her face.

Kurt nodded. "I think so. I stayed up all night thinking of different ways to showcase my talent. Oh god, I sound like Rachel."

"Hey!" Rachel said from behind them, evidently eavesdropping on the conversation.

Kurt glared at her. "Rachel, has no one ever taught you manners?"

Rachel crossed her arms with a small noise of indignity. "Has no one told you that it's rude to talk badly of others?"

Kurt stared and then let out a sigh of defeat. "Fine," he said, waving his hands into the air. "You raise a valid point."

Rachel beamed, glad to have won their little argument. She shook her head and glanced at Mercedes, reaching her hand forward to lean on the back of the chair. "Are you nervous?" she finally asked them excitably.

"Petrified," Kurt admitted.

Mercedes, Finn and Rachel stared at him as if he'd grown another head. "You're scared?" Finn eventually asked.

Kurt took a deep breath. "I haven't told anyone this before," he exhaled. "But I suffer from stage fright."

"That's ludicrous!" Rachel exclaimed. "You've performed on stage before."

Mercedes frowned. "He's never had a solo, thinking about it."

Kurt nodded. "It's the reason I turned down Mr. Schuester's offer."

"But your voice is almost as good as mine!" Rachel proclaimed in astonishment.

Kurt smiled at the short brunette. "That's high praise from you, Miss Berry."

The coach came to a standstill and the four friends exited, hurrying hastily to the choir room. Mr. Schuester stood proudly in the middle, clasping his hands together with excitement.

"We're going to kick some Warbler's ass!" Puck announced. "And the elderly hipsters. But in a nicer way."

Mr. Schuester nodded, and led them all outside to another bus.

* * *

The competition hall was dark as they entered. Kurt's eyes flickered over to Santana, who was clutching Brittany tightly. He'd never have guessed Santana was afraid of the dark.

Finn was hugging Rachel closely, who was beaming at the competition hall and searching for their singing opponents.

Mercedes and Sam were standing suspiciously close and Kurt resisted the urge to stifle his fingers in his mouth, a happy sigh escaping him and causing Artie to raise an eyebrow at him.

"What?" he said defensively. "I'm excited."

"Me too, yo." Artie agreed, running a hand through his rather messy hair. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Tina and Mike were too busy smiling at each other to hear him.

"Guys, guys!" Mr. Schuester called out, gaining their attention. "We need to get changed into our competition clothes."

"I just need to take this jacket off," Kurt whispered to the nearest person to him, who happened to be Tina. "My competition outfit is already on underneath."

Tina frowned at him. "It's not like you to not have a spare change of clothes."

"I know," Kurt admitted, with a soft exhale. "It's also not like me to sleep over my alarm."

"Oh, you woke up late?" Tina asked, her voice sympathetic. "That's a shame."

Kurt grinned.

Mr. Schuester led them into a spare room, where there were several conveniently placed tables and chairs. No mirrors, Kurt noticed with a slight annoyance. He couldn't check how dreadful his appearance was at this current point.

"All the boys are getting changed in here," Mr. Schuester announced and the boys all started to remove their shirts. Kurt frowned at the still present female members. "Shoo," he said to them in a joking tone as he began to undo the zip on his jacket.

Santana cat called and Puck laughed, undoing his jeans to reveal plain boxers underneath, that did nothing to hide his huge package.

Kurt gulped. "Out!" he shouted at the girls, who looked at him with disappointment and then left the room, following Mr. Schuester, who had become red in the face.

"I need to go to the restroom," Kurt murmured, feeling dizzy. "Did Mr. Schue tell us where it is?"

"Yes," Mike said. "Down the hall and to the left. It's the first door."

Kurt smiled gratefully at Mike, holding his head.

He undid his jacket, leaving him in his Sectionals performing clothes and stumbled down the hall, feeling even more light-headed. Reaching the restroom, he entered and gripped the sink, staring in the mirror with a heavy breath.

Kurt glanced up, disliking the image he saw. He looked _dreadful. _His hair was sticking up in places it shouldn't have been and he had dark shadows under his eyes. His red shirt was crumpled in places, and he saw that his jeans were still unzipped. Flushing red, he quickly did it up and glanced up at the mirror once more.

He held a breath as someone exited a cubicle.

I'm not alone, he remembered. This is a public restroom.

He peeped at the boy who walked to the sink, gelled black hair and hazel eyes.

Kurt clasped a hand to his mouth. No, he thought. It's not possible.

But it was, Kurt reasoned. He had seen that boy every day for the past couple of weeks on his laptop screen.

"_Blaine_?" he asked in disbelief.

The boy turned around, turning off the faucet, a frown on his face. "Oh my god," the boy said. "You're… You're _Kurt_! Amazing Fanfiction writer Kurt. Gorgeous Kurt. Oh my god. I can't breathe."

Kurt blushed, flustered at the praise. "That's me."


	21. Chapter 21

**This chapter was written by The Blonde Haired Goose. An epilogue will be published in two days.**

Blaine was just exiting the stall and washing his hands when someone spoke beside him. "Blaine?" the voice asked, and Blaine turned curiously to look at the boy next to him, eyes widening as he recognized him.

"Oh my god," he said incredulously, staring at the tall, pale, brown haired boy he had come to know over these past weeks. "You're… You're Kurt!" he sputtered, and the words just kept spewing out of his mouth. "Amazing fanfiction writer Kurt. Gorgeous Kurt. Oh my god. I can't breathe." Blaine only had a moment to feel horrified at the fact that he had just called Kurt gorgeous. To his face.

The boy blushed lightly. "That's me," he said awkwardly, smiling sweetly at Blaine.

"You're in the new directions?" Blaine asked, confused. He took in the red shirt and black pants he had seen the other members of their club wearing. Kurt nodded slowly.

"And you're in the warblers?" he asked, and Blaine nodded, grinning.

"I can't believe I'm meeting you here. This is insane!" Blaine muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. Kurt looked like he was just about to say something when the door to the bathroom opened and someone stepped inside, wearing the same clothes as Kurt was. Blaine could recognize that head of blonde hair anywhere.

"Sam?" Blaine and Kurt asked at the same time. Kurt turned back to stare curiously at Blaine. "Wait?" he asked. "You know each other?" Kurt looked between the two of them, who both nodded.

"Yeah, we met online," Blaine explained. "We were supposed to meet today actually, before the competition." Sam nodded in agreement, and something seemed to go up for Kurt.

"So Blaine is the guy you wanted me to meet?" he asked, direction his question towards Sam.

"Yeah, I told you he was awesome. But Kurt, I actually came in here to tell you that we're going on soon. We kinda need to go."

Kurt looked disappointed, but nodded his head. Sam turned and went outside to join the others, but Kurt stayed behind for a second, turning back towards Blaine.

"Will you meet me backstage after the competition's finished? I really want to keep talking to you, but I have to go."

Blaine looked down at his watch and cursed. "Shit, I have to go too. But yeah, of course I will. I'd love to meet up with you. Good luck today by the way, I'm sure you'll be great!"

"Yeah, you too," Kurt said, smiling. "I'm sure you'll be great too!"

With those words, they silently exited the bathroom and went to join their groups. Blaine had a hard time focusing in the last few minutes before they were going on stage, but managed to pull himself together enough to charm the pants off the audience with their rendition of Hey Soul Sister.

Afterwards he stayed by the edge of the stage to watch Kurt and Sam and the rest of the New Directions perform their songs. Blaine had to admit, as much as he trusted the Warblers talent, that Kurt's group was going to be tough to beat.

In the end, the Warblers tied with the New Directions, and no one, except perhaps The Hipsters, who lost, could be anything but happy about it.

Blaine escaped from the Warblers as quickly as he could, confident that Kurt couldn't have gotten away from his own group any faster, and waited for him backstage. A few minutes later, Kurt emerged from one of the green rooms, grinning widely as he saw him. Blaine opened his arms hesitantly and Kurt flew into them, hugging him tight.

"Congratulations, you were amazing out there," Kurt exclaimed once they broke apart.

"I could say the same about you, though I wish I could have seen more of you!" Blaine answered, equally excited.

Kurt blushed and looked away. "Yeah, well, I'm not overly fond of being in the spotlight, if you can believe it," he said.

Blaine shook his head. "I don't think I can, to be honest, but whatever makes you feel comfortable."

Kurt smiled and rolled his eyes.

"So," Blaine began, biting his lip. "I don't know if this is coming off too strong or anything, but could I have your number? I'd really like it if we could meet up sometime for a coffee or something?"

Kurt reached into the pocket of his jeans to pull out his phone, holding out his hand for Blaine to do the same and give it to him. Blaine did, and they exchanged numbers. "Call me sometime," Kurt said, giving him back his phone.

"I definitely will," Blaine replied happily. "You know, I knew you lived in Ohio, but I never thought you could live so close to me. That's pretty insane."

"I agree," Kurt answered. "It is pretty wicked. I still can't fully comprehend the fact that I'm meeting my best tumblr friend. By accident, no less. If I wasn't an atheist I might believe that it was fate or god's will or something silly like that."

"Yeah, I feel you," Blaine said jokingly. A door slammed open behind them, and as Blaine turned he saw Jeff and the rest of the Warblers piling out towards the front door. Jeff noticed him and came over curiously.

"Hey, Blaine," he said, looking Kurt up and down as he talked. "We're leaving soon, so you might want to get your stuff and join us in the bus." Blaine was about to answer him and tell him that he would be right there, but Jeff was evidently not finished talking. "You're the guy aren't you?" he asked Kurt, who looked half curious, half scared.

"Blaine's little cyber boyfriend, Kurt or whatever? Nice to meet you." And with those words, he turned, leaving a horrified Kurt and a blushing, humiliated Blaine behind.

"I swear I never said that to him," Blaine hurried to reassure Kurt. "I told him we're friends, that's all, I swear."

"It's alright," Kurt answered, looking less shocked by the second. "He just surprised me. Now, it looks like you have to go join your friends, and I should probably get back to mine too, but call me, alright?"

"Yeah, I'll definitely do that," Blaine answered firmly. They hugged again before going their separate ways. Their first meeting might have been unexpected and slightly weird and hurried, but they would have many more meetings after that to make up for it.


	22. Epilogue

**This chapter was written by me.**

* * *

**Epilogue**

**Six months later**

_Your fic was, once again, excellent. _Kurt typed on his phone, sending the message to Blaine with a satisfied grin on his face.

_Oh, hush, your fics are so much better. _Kurt smiled at Blaine's instant response, fingers fluttering back to his cell.

Kurt paused momentarily, wondering if what he was going to say would be too forward, but decided Blaine wouldn't mind. _Come round. Please. I want to see you._

He held his breath for a few minutes until his phone beeped with a new text alert. _I'll be there in two hours._

Beaming, Kurt hurried over to his mirror and checked his hair. Two hours was a good time limit. It meant he could ensure that everyone had indeed left the house.

**Two hours later.**

The doorbell rang, signaling Blaine's arrival. With a grin on his face, Kurt checked that his room was clean and appropriately neat before heading to the door. He opened it to greet an extremely cheerful Blaine.

"You're here!" Kurt exclaimed happily, reaching forwards to envelop Blaine in a hug. The shorter boy let out a slight gasp as Kurt squeezed him rather tightly. "I've missed you."

"You saw me last weekend," Blaine said, rolling his eyes fondly. "We Skype every night. Honestly."

"And yet I still miss you." Kurt said simply, earning an embarrassed grin from Blaine himself.

"I miss you too." Blaine said, letting out a slightly wistful sigh as he watched Kurt's bubbling excitement. "You make my days immensely brighter."

Kurt laughed. "Obviously. I'm Kurt Hummel. I brighten up anyone's day."

Blaine snorted in response, looking down. "So, uh, living room? Kitchen? Bedroom?"

"Bedroom," Kurt responded, flushing at his quick response. Blaine stifled a giggle. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Blaine grabbed Kurt's hand and Kurt, whilst surprised, smiled softly at him. "Show me the way, Peter Frampton."

Kurt nodded, flustered, and led Blaine to his immaculate room. He pushed open the door and pointed towards his bed. Blaine, confused, sat down and observed Kurt's odd behavior.

"I remembered our first proper meeting," Kurt explained as he returned, a guitar in his hands. "And I realized it's been six months. _Six months_. Time goes so fast."

Blaine nodded slowly, unsure where Kurt was going with this.

"So," Kurt continued, ignoring Blaine's confusion, "I was thinking that you would play guitar for me and, in return, I would sing for you."

Blaine blinked at Kurt's brashness, eyeing the guitar. "I don't know…"

"For me?" Kurt asked, forcing the guitar into Blaine's hands.

"I can't deny anyone anything," Blaine said, annoyed, though his fingers automatically started plucking the strings, relishing the beautiful sound he created. "Especially not you. What do you want me to play?"

Kurt shrugged. "Whatever you want."

Blaine bit his lip and grinned, playing an E chord. He finished the first riff, cleared his throat and began to sing.

"_Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion, I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high."_

Kurt smiled, enraptured with Blaine's strong baritone.

"_Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man, though my mind could think I still was a mad man, I hear the voices when I'm dreaming, I can hear them say-"_

Kurt quietly joined in, Blaine glancing up at him in mild surprise. "_Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are done, lay your weary head to rest._"

Blaine stopped playing, looking at Kurt with a soft smile. "Kurt… You should sing more. Your voice is good. Really good."

Kurt looked down, suddenly shy. "Thanks. It pales in comparison to yours."

"Don't say that," Blaine said. "You're too critical. You have a nice voice. Believe me."

Kurt scoffed. "You haven't heard me sing."

"Then sing for me," Blaine said simply.

Kurt paused, clasping his hands together nervously. "Okay. Let me just…"

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "_Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise."_

Blaine watched him, transfixed.

Kurt, feeling slightly more confident, continued. "_Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see, all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free._

"_Blackbird fly, blackbird fly, into the light of the dark black night. Blackbird fly, blackbird fly, into the light of the dark black night._

"_Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise. You were only waiting for this moment to arise. You were only waiting for this moment to arise."_

Kurt stopped, eyes downcast. "What did you think?"

Blaine stood up, looking at Kurt with newfound affection. "That was moving." He told the other boy gently, lifting up his chin so Kurt was staring at him. "You move me, Kurt."

Kurt blinked, confused, as Blaine leaned in and kissed him straight on the mouth. Kurt kissed back, leaning into the kiss and reaching out to hug Blaine closer to him. They broke apart, Kurt gasping with surprise. "Blaine," he whimpered happily.

"I really like you, Kurt." Blaine said, smiling at him. "I have ever since we first spoke. You were adorable and I… I think I could fall in love with you."

Kurt paused, happiness filling him. "I think I could fall in love with you too," he replied honestly, kissing Blaine once more.

It was safe to say that Kurt Hummel had had a great year.


End file.
